According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, suicide is “the third leading cause of death for 15-to-24-year-olds”. Claiming thousands of lives each year, suicide has been called an “epidemic” by some youth health professionals and proves to be a difficult problem to manage.
So, what makes the story of 19-year-old Abraham Briggs unique? At approximately 3 AM early Wednesday morning, the Florida teen overdosed on a combination opiates and benzodiazepine to a live audience of 185 viewers at the website Justin.tv.
According to reports, Briggs announced his intent in a forum at bodybuilding.com which subsequently linked to the webcast. While some viewers pondered Briggs’ seriousness, others jokingly encouraged his actions. It wasn’t until 12 hours later that police received a tip to check on the young man. By then, it was too late.
While it is arguable that the actions of the viewers had any real effect on this young man’s decision to end his life (his parents have acknowledged that he suffered from bipolar disorder) it is nevertheless sad to observe such callousness on display. Even after it was clear that Briggs had died, the comments continued with people writing things like “LOL” and “OMFG”. Some of the comments can be seen in the below image which shows police retrieving the teen’s body.
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Suicide is an absolute tragedy. What’s even sadder is the way that technology and the anonymity of the net have made people cold to the terrible hurt their actions are capable of causing. From the sad case of Megan Meier to this most recent story, it is apparent that people are becoming increasingly disconnected from reality every time they sit down in front of the computer. As the Internet continues to take on an ever more important role in people’s lives, it is important that we learn to practice the same kind of civility and respect on the web as we do in our everyday lives.
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