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"500 people watched 19-year-old Abraham K Biggs, of Broward County, Florida, take an overdose on website Justin.tv, earlier this week. He is also thought to have used the internet as a way of building up to his death by posting a suicide note online."
Michael Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv, claimed in an email to The Times newspaper that his website has policies in place to "discourage the distribution of distressing content." There is really not much more the site can do beyond having a policy of trying to get help for people who post these messages or videos. This help-line is something afternoon talk shows like The Montel Williams Show used to do with "guests" who were troubled souls looking for a little moment of celebrity while they battled their demons. Dr. Phil's show offers similar after-show counseling. Would or could these online site administrators do such a thing? Hmmm...not likely.
Suicide online is going to be, I fear, a staple of the 21st century. It's not quite snuff movie material but it's close to it, i.e., offing oneself rather than offing someone else. I use the dramatic, disrespectful term "offing" because, to a certain extent, what we're seeing is the exploitation of social interaction sites to exhibit oneself in a final act of finding relief, revenge, making a plea for help, choose your poison. Any and all can apply to any individual taking this way "out." It is both desperate and theatrical.
Suicide can be private or it can be public. Private is far less motivationally adulterated than public. A multiplicity of motives determine which exit someone takes. "Suicide by cop" is another example of suicide involving others for whatever personal complex of motives are involved.
With the advent of such social networking sites as Justin.tv, MyFace, MySpace, FaceBook, etc., we have provided a stage for people who used to find other ways to reveal their distress to the world. Justin.tv may have policies in place to discourage suicides and related "distressing content," but given its exhibitionism-inviting verve -- each person can have his own "station" to show his activities and the viewer merely needs to drop in and view DennisTV, AliceTV, BarneyTV, whatever - what can be more magnetic to someone who craves love, attention, craves, media importance. After all, according to the L.A. Times, Biggs began a discussion thread called, "Ask a guy who is gonna OD (again) tonight anything," which included nothing but a link to his live video stream on the Justin.tv site. Biggs used the alias "CandyJunkie." When a forum user asked why he was doing this, he responded, "I wanna die dur." The last word means "Duh," or "Isn't it obvious?"
Yes, it is obvious. It's also broadcasting what used to be simply a suicide note or suicide gesture gone wrong. So this is the suicide note of the techno-savvy 21st century. Will it invite copycats? Probably. There is already a "morguish" list of public teenage suicides. It depends on the publicity this suicide gets and the extent to which teens find this cool, either to watch or to enact. If somehow someone or some group makes this act, this gesture, this ritual, DEFINITELY NOT COOL, it will be seen less. The rescue appeal with teens is often to vanity, not sanity, I fear.
It was reported that people watched the Biggs suicide and did nothing, even encouraged him on over the period of time that he was threatening suicide. Others reportedly tried to do something but didn't know what to do or how to do it. These bystander reactions are now fairly well understood. An entire area of research in psychology is devoted to this phenomenon and is listed under the topic heading of "bystander intervention" studies. These studies began with psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley in the 1960s, sometime after the slow stalking and murder of Kitty Genovese in Kew Gardens, Queens. Some of her neighbors did nothing, some were transfixed, and others called the police or wanted to do something but didn't know if it was just a marital squabble or something else that was personal. In the case of Abraham K. Biggs people had no way to actually know for sure what was going on. And when action came, it was too late.
Let's be clear on something. Websites don't cause suicides. They are merely the latest fashion venue on which people with an intent do it with a flourish to make themselves tragically memorable.
The cause of the suicide is found in the tracks of self-doubt, disappointment, neglect, frustration and a host of other emotions and micro-events which lead to ideas of finally getting over the pain. Even if some onlookers encouraged Abraham, this 19 year old clearly needed little of that to commit the final act. He might have been stopped this time if someone intervened, if someone realized that what they were watching was authentic and knew how to get to him.
Research suggests two important suicide types: 1) it is primarily the impulsively motivated suicidist who is discouraged by disruptions to their goal. 2) Planned suicides are rarely stopped; they are mostly forestalled until the next plan is hatched. The rub always is, how does someone rescue a person's mind so that they decide to rescue their body.
