Picking My Brain

While goofing around the intertubes this morning (instead of getting ready for work, of course) I happened across an very disturbing news article.

Bebo is a social networking site, similar to MySpace. Apparently there’s a new craze sweeping it’s members, and it’s deadly serious.

Police in Great Britain suspect that 7 teen suicides in South Wales are part of a suicide craze of Bebo members. According to the article, the teens are committing suicide in order to gain “prestige” among their friends. After the teen’s deaths, their friends are setting up memorial websites where comments, videos and photographs in tribute. Police suspect that the teens are seeing these memorial sites as a way of gaining prestige.

Never could I ever believe that a popularity contest could be so…well, deadly. I would imagine the prestige comes from the age-old “who has the most.” Who has the most comments, the most videos, the most people who miss them.

What I don’t get is, the teens don’t get to see the results of their “prestige.” What good is prestige if you’re not there to enjoy it?  I’m young enough to recall vividly what’s its like to be a teenager.  Everything matters.  So much.  You’re miserable.  Everything is about you.  Nobody loves you. Nobody understands you.  Nobody would miss you if you disappeared.  The whole world is heavy.  Dying seems like a really good option a lot of days, because it’s never going to get any better than this.  This is it.
But somehow you find your way through it and suddenly one day, you’re a rational human being again.  You’ve learned some things along the way, and now you’re off.  It may not always be the best, but you’re alive, and that’s what counts.

Yes, there are the ones with genuine psychological issues that go untreated far too many times.  But for normal healthy kids to be killing themselves for their lives to matter is absurd.

I am not one to often play the “blame game,” but in this instance, I wonder exactly how much influence does the media have?  How long after Anna Nicole died was she still being plastered everywhere.  Any news markets anywhere today is carrying the Heath Ledger story.  I can’t even check my Hotmail today with out seeing it.  What kind of message does that send?  More popular in death than in life?

I don’t really know how to end this post.  All I can do is suggest that you go out and be a positive roll model for someone close to you.  Understand that being a teenager sucks.  And sucks hard.  But the human race wouldn’t be here today if people never made it past their teen years.  You honestly don’t know what’s in store for your life.  Give it a chance.

Giving up means that you never get to show those stupid kids in school what you’re really made of.  I hated high school, but now that I have my college degree and a professional job, in a way I feel like I’ve proven them wrong.  I succeed anyway.

And that kind of prestige I get to enjoy.