Brave New World
Last year Diane Lane starred in Untraceable, a drama-mystery set around an FBI team tracking down a killer who posted his kills online and directly shared his kill with millions of loggers. The movie is more than a mystery. It not-so-subtly points out what we have become. Looking for a quick fix, searching for a bit of thrill, becoming uglier than those we root against.
Three days ago a boy commited suicide on justin.tv. People saw it happening, they cheered him on and some even said someone should call the police. Of course no one really did until it was too late. He over-dosed on sleeping pills and sat there slumped near his webcam for hours before the police came. You can read all about it here and here, you can read how a guy tried to help and response he got here.
Last year, a man in Britain hung himself on the webcam. In 2003, a boy in Arizona met a similar fate while many chatters watched and even egged him on. So what have we become? Do we know the impact of the words we type? Can we ever look away?
In the Diane Lane’s movie, every time a vicitm died they camera zoomed up on the comments people kept posting. The following two excerpts are from the chatroom during the time these two deaths (mentioned above) were taking place.
Kevin Whitrick. Died March 21 2007, Shropshire
Shyguy_17_1 (Whitrick): I’ve had it, you think I am full of s***, not this time.
- F****** do it, get on with it, get it round your neck. For F***’s sake he can’t even do this properly.
- Oh my God, this is serious. Someone should call the police.
- His face is turning purple. This guy is dead.
- His face is turning red. OMG (Oh My God).
- Is this real?
Brandon Vedas, 21. Died January 12 2003, Arizona
Ripper (Vedas): Tonight is a (good) night fellas…klono, methadone, restoril, inderal, weed. bottoms up.
- Dude you just drank it. Ripper: Yeah.
- Eat more . . . that’s not much . . . I wanna see if you survive or you just black out.
- Eat more Ripper: Righty hoe.
- F****** eat it. Ripper: Ripper has perished.
- You’d better not go to sleep
- Breathe
- Man don’t die
Tags: justin.tv, justin.tv suicide, live suicide, online suicide, suicide, suicide online
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