On Christmas day a UK woman, Simone Back, announced her suicide plan on Facebook and no one stepped in to help. “Took all my pills, bye bye”, that was a message 1048 friends saw; a handful made comments, called her a liar and pretty much called her bluff. Only this time it wasn’t a bluff. Simone was found dead later that day. Her mother asked Simone’s Facebook friends to now leave her alone.
With the technology we have today you would think that a cry for help wouldn’t go unanswered. Facebook status updates go unread all the time but this one was read and ridiculed and chastised. Our social reach goes far beyond our physical abilities. I have friends in Hawaii that I’ve never met and family in Georgia that I haven’t seen in many years. But I was able to share holiday memories, birthday wishes and pictures of the kids with them both. Having this vast network of “friends” all over doesn’t really mean you have friends though. A lot of these friends are just numbers for your games, blogs, fanbase or cause. I’m guilty of this since I ask for a Facebook like or Twitter follow as giveaway entries. Does this mean all of those people are my friends; no. But I can say that I appreciate the effort to help build LookWhatMomFound…and Dad too! and love reading comments and updates and messages from everyone I’ve friended and liked or followed. I would hope that if I was down, depressed, excited, sad, happy or bored my online friends as well as my real life would be there to support or cheer me on.