Social media and the death of a 12 year old

On 30 December 2016, 12 year old Katelyn Nicole Davis went outside her house, put her mobile phone on a table and pressed the “Go Live” button on her Facebook profile. She spent the next 42 minutes talking about her life while tying a rope around a tree branch. In her last sentences she said things like “Sorry I am not pretty enough”, ”sorry about everything” and then “Goodbye”. She then proceeded to hang herself while Facebook was watching. 10 Minutes later you could hear people calling her name, but by then it was too late, she was taken to hospital but was declared dead a few minutes later.

I am not going to dwell on Katelyn’s decision to commit suicide, it was after all her life, and one should never judge another if you have not walked a few miles in their shoes.

The more burning question on my mind is, why choose Facebook, why social media? Why would you want to show the world something so personal, so intimate, so… selfish? Maybe no one listened, maybe no one was paying attention, maybe no one saw the signs, maybe the only way she could get the world to stop and listen was to do something that would stand out …maybe all she needed was for someone to listen. Unfortunately for Katelyn it is too late, while her cries for help went unheard, unnoticed, she left us all with more questions than answers, like all suicide do.

I believe she went the social media route for the same reason we take photos of our food and share it on Facebook, the same reason we show off our possessions and “assets” on apps like Instagram, Twitter, Pintrest, Google+ and every other medium you can think off, the same reason we boast about how wonderful our lives are, the same reason why we lie to the world.

If you think social media is to blame for all this, guess again. Since the beginning time mankind has had this inherent need to be smarter, faster and better than his fellow man. We have always been filled with greed and we have always been green with envy. Social media has just given us the tools to exploit our inner needs, and desires. If you think about it, you can be whoever you want on the internet, it all just depends on what you tell the world.

The problem with this is, that we get lost in this make believe world, we get lost in a time and space where we can show the rest of the world a side of us that they do not see in the real world. We lose touch with reality, but the scary part is…we like it! We like it so much that we get addicted to our smart devices, we check our technology every chance we get, we cannot put it down, we cannot walk away. We struggle to go through life without having to know what “Susan said about Paul”. We have social gatherings, but we rarely talk. We know exactly what the Kardashiens are up to, but don’t know about a sick relative. We spy on each other, and judge each other by the lies they post on the net. We sit together in groups not saying a word, just looking at our phones. We take photos of ourselves to see how many likes we get. You can now even take a picture of yourself and post it on certain groups to ask people to roast you, then you can sit back and watch how people make fun of you, the whole thing is ridiculous! We are so consumed with our smart phones that we have lost touch with each other. We are in danger of losing our compassion for each other.

Don’t get me wrong, social media is a wonderful thing, but maybe it’s time we start putting our phones and tablets down, and to look around us, and to listen to the real people around us.

The reason Katelyn Nicole Davis broadcast her suicide on Facebook was that she knew that someone would watch, she knew that someone would then maybe… listen.

[“source-ndtv”]