Almost two years ago (in May 2012), a young girl by the name of Tori Swoape committed suicide by hanging herself with a scarf in her bedroom due to bullying. She had lived in Muncie for a while, but switched to a school in Bloomington. During this transition, she experienced brutal accounts of bullying due to rumors being spread- mostly on Facebook. Her last Facebook post contained her sadness and her anger towards the bullying (she stated she was "fed up" with it).
The whole community was devastated by her death, resulting in an annual Anti-Bullying block party ordeal at a local park and a push of legislative action on behalf of ending bullying. To this day, it still breaks my heart that a fifteen-year-old took her life because of the pain caused by hurtful words of those who were supposed to be her friends.
We have discussed in class about whether Facebook/other social media outlets can be isolating or join people together, and I believe that it can do both. In this case, social media provided an outlet for bullies to collectively pick on this girl. They formed together because of a common cause (a negative cause) and gained a sense of community because of this shared "hate." However, social media had an opposite effect on Tori. While she was bullied, she began to feel isolated because it seemed like everyone was out to get her. This isolation led to feelings of hopelessness which tragically resulted in her taking her own life.
Unfortunately, social media (since it is user-generated) has the option of becoming a spite-filled and hateful place, which can bring a sense of community to some and feelings of isolation and hopelessness to others.
More information on this story can be found here:
Tori Swoape
So unfortunate. It's so easy to forget about how terrible the affects of social media can be.
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