[Tricks]

Brenda Brenda:

So because you don't know, it is not true, or not popular, or not "going viral"?

Honestly? Yes. The whole point of viral videos is that everyone and their grandmother knows about it. When I think viral, I think 10, 20, 30 million hits. Which then spawn videos that garner another 10, 20, 30 million. That's viral. The ones you mentioned are maybe 5 million. Tops.

$1:

No, people love to watch a train wreck. Is that what we should teach our children?

Is it the truth?

[Tricks]

Brenda Brenda:

You had also (almost) forgotten about Tyler Clementi, which was a big one.
So what does that tell you? That you don't absorb that well, or that "she gets so much attention now"?

Tyler Clementi was a big one, but that's the first I've heard that name since his death two years ago. I'm sorry I don't remember his name. I don't remember much about two years ago except that I was finishing up at school. I don't remember who won any major sporting trophy. I don't remember any of the names from the winter olympics. Because after a couple weeks it isn't spoken of again and it falls from memory. That's how the brain works.

$1:

Amanda chose to put her life on youtube. Not everyone choses that. If there is nothing to find about someone, they won't go "viral".

True.

Here's a thought. People have been focusing a lot of attention on this girl for the last 10 days. Understandable, and it shows support for her family. However the WHO estimates someone takes their life from suicide every 40 seconds somewhere on the planet.

What are we doing about those still living? Those we can actually help? Whether it be bullying victims or vets who can't cope with being home. There are more than one reason, lets focus on helping those people. Then maybe you can tell your kids people are empathetic.

[Brenda]

Tricks Tricks:

Brenda Brenda:

So because you don't know, it is not true, or not popular, or not "going viral"?

Honestly? Yes. The whole point of viral videos is that everyone and their grandmother knows about it. When I think viral, I think 10, 20, 30 million hits. Which then spawn videos that garner another 10, 20, 30 million. That's viral. The ones you mentioned are maybe 5 million. Tops.

"Viral" is when the media picks it up.

$1:

$1:

No, people love to watch a train wreck. Is that what we should teach our children?

Is it the truth?

Do you always answer a question with a question?

[Brenda]

Tricks Tricks:

Brenda Brenda:

You had also (almost) forgotten about Tyler Clementi, which was a big one.
So what does that tell you? That you don't absorb that well, or that "she gets so much attention now"?

Tyler Clementi was a big one, but that's the first I've heard that name since his death two years ago. I'm sorry I don't remember his name. I don't remember much about two years ago except that I was finishing up at school. I don't remember who won any major sporting trophy. I don't remember any of the names from the winter olympics. Because after a couple weeks it isn't spoken of again and it falls from memory. That's how the brain works.

That is true, but that does not mean that "anyone else could kill them selves and no one cares", it means we just get caught up in our every day lives again.

$1:

$1:

Amanda chose to put her life on youtube. Not everyone choses that. If there is nothing to find about someone, they won't go "viral".

True.

Here's a thought. People have been focusing a lot of attention on this girl for the last 10 days. Understandable, and it shows support for her family. However the WHO estimates someone takes their life from suicide every 40 seconds somewhere on the planet.

What are we doing about those still living? Those we can actually help? Whether it be bullying victims or vets who can't cope with being home. There are more than one reason, lets focus on helping those people. Then maybe you can tell your kids people are empathetic.

She may become the face of bullying and an anti-bully campaign, like Lance Armstrong is (still) the face of cancer survivors.

We ARE focusing on bullying victims. She was one. She committed suicide. She made a mistake. A mistake we should tell our children to not make.
We ARE focusing on helping all kinds of people who need the help.

[Tricks]

Brenda Brenda:

"Viral" is when the media picks it up.

Not really. The media provided antoine dodson, didn't pick it up Charlie bit my finger was definitely viral before it got picked up.

$1:

$1:

$1:

No, people love to watch a train wreck. Is that what we should teach our children?

Is it the truth?

Do you always answer a question with a question?

Sometimes. There is a reason for the phrase "It's like a train wreck, you want to look away but you can't."

[Lemmy]

Brenda Brenda:

like Lance Armstrong is (still) the face of cancer survivors.

Melissa Etheridge

[Tricks]

Brenda Brenda:

That is true, but that does not mean that "anyone else could kill them selves and no one cares", it means we just get caught up in our every day lives again.

I'm saying that people care for a week and then no one cares.

$1:

She may become the face of bullying and an anti-bully campaign, like Lance Armstrong is (still) the face of cancer survivors.

So was Clementi. What's her face was the face of anti gun legislation.

$1:

We ARE focusing on bullying victims. She was one. She committed suicide. She made a mistake. A mistake we should tell our children to not make.
We ARE focusing on helping all kinds of people who need the help.

You're focusing on one who can not be helped any longer. I'd think most parents were telling their kids not to make the mistakes that Amanda Todd made before it happened. And no, we aren't focusing on helping the kids who need it. We're too busy focusing on Amanda Todd, like you just said. We're getting poorly thought out legislation that makes the government look like it's doing something. We're getting people saying they care, and then they'll forget two weeks from now. That's not helping. That's delaying. That's stalling.

[ShepherdsDog]

I think what ended up killing Amanda Todd in the end, existed before the internet flashing and alleged sleeping around with the other girls' boyfriends. That behaviour was symptomatic of low self esteem and clinical depression which was pre existing and exacerbated by what followed. Mental illness seems to be on the rise, if you listen to the news. Look at the report, covered on CBC, about how much depression in its various forms is costing employers and society in general.

I've mentioned it before, and I think it deserves mentioning again, that teen suicide was almost unheard of before the 1970s. Something has changed dramatically. Schools and society(parents included) no longer help build up individuals, they build fragile egos by telling children they can be anything they want to be. They aren't allowed to face challenge or adversity or taught how to deal with setbacks and failures and learn from them. They have almost no coping skills. Then there is the entire problem of immediate gratification they have been taught. AND then there are the Pharma Corp. poisons, prozac and ritalin, that are being force fed to children that have been proven to lead to suicidal behaviour and worsen weaknesses in already fragile psyches, all in the name of making everyone one type of beige.

Kids have been over coddled and are unprepared to face the challenges in life that previous generations coped with. We as a society have to do some serious reflecting on where we were, where we are and where we want to go. Our future(children) is in serious jeopardy. There is something insidious going on right now than mere bullying which has gone on forever and likely will , but maybe in more subtle forms, just as we have always had those with 'tortured souls'.

From the CDC in 2007, which reported the highest rate of increase in 15 years

[Strutz]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

I think what ended up killing Amanda Todd in the end, existed before the internet flashing and alleged sleeping around with the other girls' boyfriends. That behaviour was symptomatic of low self esteem and clinical depression which was pre existing and exacerbated by what followed. Mental illness seems to be on the rise, if you listen to the news. Look at the report, covered on CBC, about how much depression in its various forms is costing employers and society in general.

Yes, I read this article and posted it last week.

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

I've mentioned it before, and I think it deserves mentioning again, that teen suicide was almost unheard of before the 1970s. Something has changed dramatically. Schools and society(parents included) no longer help build up individuals, they build fragile egos by telling children they can be anything they want to be. They aren't allowed to face challenge or adversity or how to deal with setbacks and failures and learn from them. Then there is the entire problem of immediate gratification they have been taught. AND then there are the Pharma Corp. poisons, prozac and ritalin, that are being force fed to children that have been proven to lead to suicidal behaviour and worsen weaknesses in already fragile psyches, all in the name of making everyone one type of beige.

Kids have been over coddled and are unprepared to face the challenges in life that previous generations coped with. We as a society have to do some serious reflecting on where we were, where we are and where we want to go. Our future(children) is in serious jeopardy. There is something insidious going on right now than mere bullying which has gone on forever and likely will , but maybe in more subtle forms, just as we have always had those with 'tortured souls'.

From the CDC in 2007, which reported the highest rate of increase in 15 years

Good points.

It's more than tragic when these teens choose to take their own lives. It always hits close to home with me because... I've been there, as a teen back in the mid-80's. I was bullied too (and you never forget that shit) but that was certainly not the only factor in what drove me to that point, but it was certainly was a part of it. I can understand the despair, feel it... when she commented about feeling alone... oh yeah...

But the increase in teen suicides (according to this article) is alarming.


Edit - I have also known 3 adults to have taken their own lives over the past 20 or so years... it can be tough at any age.

[xerxes]

The thing that still galls me isn't the fact that people are question why there is all of this attention when it's rightly pointed out that there are far too many cases like this happening all over. It's a fair question but one that inevitably brings out Stalin's infamous quote that one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.

What gets me is that people are using her supposed behaviour as an excuse or cover for what was done to her. "Well...she was a ho so she got what was coming to her". Well, no, she didn't. Nothing she did justified the abuse she got.

[Toastmaker]

Let me see if I get this - Thiizic posts opinions drastically different to many of the regulars here and is immediately branded a troll, and worse. Ergo; only those who share the opinions and positions of the nucleus of members is acceptable?

THIS is representative of Canada's famed welcoming of multi-cultural ideas and dissent ?? How revealing.

[Public_Domain]

This forum does not make the claim that it "represents" some imagination of the "Canadian Psyche".

Good luck finding a forum where there isn't an unspoken arua of acceptability and crossable lines. It's not the first time new members made the comically shocked claim that there seems to be a state of mob rule here. How's the new computer? Congratulations on discovering the internet! Feel your freedom of expression is threatened here? Take it somewhere else, I suggest in person, where you can better recieve tolerance for insufferable "opinions" that you feel society needs to hear and respect falling from your face.

As far as "sharing the opinion of the nucleus"; I definitely don't and yet I survive. It's all in the performance, baby. Can't handle the crowd, get off the stage.

[ShepherdsDog]

If you reread his post and the responses to it, you'll find the point of contention is over his statement that she deserved to die, not about the other points he raised.... A 15 yr old who was mentally ill, deserved to die. If you don't find this sentiment repellent, then maybe you should be looking a little deeper into your own soul, rather than castigating those who find this sort of statement reprehensible.

Electrical discharge man also has developed a bit of a rep as a plunger in his short tenure here. He disappeared once after being reprimanded by the horde, came back promising he was a changed man...he came back...he wasn't asked back. Then he squats and shits in his hand, flings it, and sits there licking his fingers.

[Toastmaker]

Oh I certainly agree that his comments were crass, insensitive and foolish. I'm not supporting his opinions - only commenting on the style of responses received by him here.

Mr_Canada. . . MY freedom of expression is not threatened at all, least of all here! "Mob rule"?, on an internet forum?? Hardly possible since the door swings both ways. As far as I'm concerned, my observations stand as simply a noted characteristic of the site.

[Public_Domain]

If your note is that users can and will come down hard when the situation permits,
I'm not in disagreement.