[Benjamin]

Although Facebook seems to be the worlds biggest Social Networking site, is it actually doing our social skills any good? Yes, we are able to keep in contact with a lot more people than we would be able to in real life, but does that mean we actually do? Or do you believe that sites like Facebook actually cause more damage to social skills?


Found this article from yesterday which is another example of how Social Networking seems to be more destructive towards social interaction. Very sad story here:

Mother of Facebook suicide woman asks why none of her 'friends' helped

10:10AM GMT 05 Jan 2011

A middle-aged woman who told her 1,048 Facebook "friends" that she had taken an overdose was found dead the next day after none came to her aid.


Simone Back, 42, posted a last message on the social networking site at 10.53pm on Christmas Day saying: "Took all my pills be dead soon bye bye everyone."

Some of the Facebook friends posted messages calling her a liar and one said it was "her choice".

Seventeen hours later, police broke down the door of her flat in Montague Street, Brighton, and found her dead.

It is not yet known at what time Miss Back died or whether she could have seen any of the messages.

Miss Back's mother, Jennifer Langridge, who called 999 after someone finally texted her about her daughter's online suicide note, said: "Nobody told me anything about it until the following day when I was sent a text saying: 'get help'.

"I am disabled so can't get up the stairs to Simone's flat so I called the police straight away. It is upsetting to think nobody did anything for my daughter."

While some Facebook friends from out of town begged online for her address and telephone number so they could get help, none of those who lived closer did anything to help.

Miss Back's friend, Samantha Pia Owen, said: "Everyone just carried on arguing with each other on Facebook like it wasn't happening. Some of those people lived within walking distance of Simone.

"If one person just left their computer and went to her house her life could have been saved."

Mental Health support charities described the incident as extremely sad.

Graham Bell, from the Brighton and Hove Depression Alliance, said: "This is a very sad reflection on our community. People need to be friends in the real world as well as in the online world."

A spokeswoman from the charity Mind said: "Loved ones can find it very difficult to know how to support someone who is experiencing mental distress whether this is being communicated face to face or online.

"It is a myth that people who talk about suicide don't go through with it.

"In fact, when someone is feeling suicidal they are very likely to have spoken about their feelings of desperation to others at some point."

Clearly, Miss Back, a charity shop worker, had spoken to her "friends" about her suicidal feelings.

Instead of treating her with the compassion she deserved and needed, some of them reacted with cruel taunts even while she lay dying, as this shocking exchange of messages revealed:

Christmas Day, 10.53pm: Simon Back posts the status update: "Took all my pills be dead soon bye bye everyone."

11.01pm: "Friend" A writes: "She ODs all the time and she lies."

11.02pm: Friend B responds angrily: "I hope that she is lying about this or you're going to feel guilty tomorrow."

Boxing Day, 12.09am: Friend C writes: "Did you catch the part about Simone taking pills?? .. the 'bye bye' part?? Did anyone go by personally and check on Simone.. or call 999?? what's wrong with you people?? is the gossip really more important than her??"

12.56am: "Friend" A retorts: "She does it all the time, takes all of her pills", then, 14 minutes later, "She's not a kid anymore."

1.56am: A third worried friend writes: "If any of you actually call yourself friends one of you should call round and see if she's ok, I'm glad I don't personally know any of you, heartless."

12.01pm: Another Facebook user logs on and writes: "She has a choice and taking pills over a relationship is not a good enough reason."

1.56pm: Friend C comes back to check and writes: "I would never treat another human the way you are treating her, there is someone out there who's desperate and all I can see is people feeding her."

At 4pm, Mrs Langridge called police to the flat after receiving a worried text and an hour later, Miss Back was pronounced dead in hospital.

Mrs Langridge later posted on her daughter's Facebook page: "My daughter Simone passed away today so please leave her alone now."

Sussex Police are not treating her death as suspicious. An inquest has been opened and adjourned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...ds-helped.html

[Angus]

People who think that the "friends" they acquire on social network sites are actually FRIENDS are deluded. Why on earth would anyone expect a total stranger to recognise whether someone is serious or not about committing suicide, or for that matter even care?

This woman's mother needs to look closer to home to examine why her daughter felt the need to express her intentions on facebook to millions of total strangers, rather than seek the help and support of her own family and real friends. Easier to blame other people though eh?

[Patrick]

It is good.

It gives people confidence to write things to people they wouldn't normally say in real life, and I don't mean death threats.

It isn't as good as it once was because it's dull now and alot of people have said that, I thought this could of been Bebo's time to shine again but I was on it last night for a second and it's a mess now.

So that's out off the picture, I give Facebook another year at a max before it dies and something else takes over.

But I quite like it really, It's like Twitter because you can update your status whenever you want and say what you think and have people respond, of course you can't talk to Celebrities,
But it's better than Twitter in the sense that there's that bit extra to do.

People just love to make a big thing out of nothing really.

[Niamh.]

That's a sad story, I suppose people didn't realise she was serious though and one said she's done that before. Having said that if she was a friend of mine and I lived nearby I would check she was ok and If I didn't live close get someone else to.

When I joined FB first I was on alot now I have a quick check once a day or every second day, the novelty has kind of worn off now!

[InOne]

Sad story

Guess it's good and bad really. All depends how you use it. Some get more addicted than others. It's weird cos I don't even know why I use it, I don't keep in contact with many people over it, it's one of those go with the flow things.

[arista]

Yes even Facebook has a Dark Side.

[Stu]

By and large Facebook is a good thing. I hate these weird, abstract arguments from miserable old fucks that invariably lead to no conclusion. You know the ones. 'Facebook is destroying real contact' or 'Facebook is turning us all into hermits' or my favourite of the more hysterical ones - 'we are going to forget how to communicate with spoken language!'. This depsite the fact that young people today socialize with greater freedom and regularity than any of their ancestors ever did.

[Z]

That's a sad story I deleted 373 people from my Facebook (including a lot of people from here, sorry if that includes you, it wasn't personal!) because it worried me when I thought about actually how many people could be viewing my personal information at any one time. I mean it's not like I'm giving out my home address over it but still, you share personal information over social networking sites because that's what they're there for, and there really isn't any need to have nearly 1000 people added who can see that. I didn't mind having that sort of number added over Bebo because that's nowhere near as personal as Facebook. The down side of deleting lots of people though is that they do tend to notice and I've already had several people I deleted request to add me again... awkward . If I saw someone post a status like the one in the article, I think my first reaction would unfortunately be that they were attention seeking. Of course, I'd feel absolutely awful upon finding out the person had actually died, but I certainly wouldn't have been heartless enough to comment on the status calling them a liar in the first place. It would depend who posted it though I suppose, if it was one of my close friends, I'd be able to tell if it's genuine or not.

[Princess]

I know so many people who've made actual friends through social networks,myself included. Everything has a dark side,but there's a lot of good to social networks as well,people never tend to hear that as much.

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Princess

I know so many people who've made actual friends through social networks,myself included. Everything has a dark side,but there's a lot of good to social networks as well,people never tend to hear that as much.

I agree with that point. The good stuff is rarely written about. Although I sometimes it is. I remember once a group I was invited to about somebody who found a camera whilst on holiday and then started a group to find the owner. They found them and returned the camera to them.

[Lee.]

I'm in touch with ex schoolpals and colleagues who I thought I'd never see again, so yeah I think FB is great! Can't be doing with these people who have 2000 friends, but only know maybe 10 of them in real life.. Thatto me is not what Facebook is all about

[Beastie]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

That's a sad story, I suppose people didn't realise she was serious though and one said she's done that before. Having said that if she was a friend of mine and I lived nearby I would check she was ok and If I didn't live close get someone else to.

When I joined FB first I was on alot now I have a quick check once a day or every second day, the novelty has kind of worn off now!

This.

I think it is more so social networking. It is only social destruction if you are not careful. I think people need to be more careful of who they accept as friend requests. Random people have added me before who I don't even know so I declined them.

[lostalex]

I've never tried facebook. I had a myspace page a few years ago, and it was just dull so i deleted it.

I got an e-mail invite from my grandma to check out her facebook page over the holidays. Ummmmmm. no. Not gonna happen.

[Lee.]

Originally Posted by lostalex

I've never tried facebook. I had a myspace page a few years ago, and it was just dull so i deleted it.

I got an e-mail invite from my grandma to check out her facebook page over the holidays. Ummmmmm. no. Not gonna happen.

Lol.. aw, why not?! Old people doing technology is cool!

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by happyland

Lol.. aw, why not?! Old people doing technology is cool!

Cause she's nuts. She'll prolly have something racist on it without realizing it's racist.

She does have a habit of saying racist things unintentionally. Old people do that. :|

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

tumblr >

[Lee.]

Originally Posted by lostalex

Cause she's nuts. She'll prolly have something racist on it without realizing it's racist.

She does have a habit of saying racist things unintentionally. Old people do that. :|

Hahah.. I know! My Grandma was terrible for it. Not just racism but downright political incorrectness!

She just could never get her head round the fact that words that were "acceptable" in her day just aren't any more!

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by happyland

Hahah.. I know! My Grandma was terrible for it. Not just racism but downright political incorrectness!

She just could never get her head round the fact that words that were "acceptable" in her day just aren't any more!

and whenever i try to tell her something is racist, her excuse is "what are you talking about! I'm not racist i watch Oprah every day!!"

[Lee.]

Originally Posted by lostalex

and whenever i try to tell her something is racist, her excuse is "what are you talking about! I'm not racist i watch Oprah every day!!"

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by lostalex

and whenever i try to tell her something is racist, her excuse is "what are you talking about! I'm not racist i watch Oprah every day!!"

One of my grandparents was like that.

[Shaun]

She seems to be a hysterical nutcase that I wouldn't necessarily confine to Facebook. There're thousands of people, some on this website, that invest far too much time and attention in their "haters" when in fact they should just pull the plug and go read a ****ing book or something.

[BB_Eye]

I just hate the lack of privacy options. If you change the slightest bit of personal info, it gets posted to everybody's news feed, as does every post you make on a forum. Then there is the photo uploading. You can detag photos, fair enough, but you can't take them down and when they go up, it's not only your friends that could see any old candid drunken photo of you, but your friends' friends, your friends' friends' friends and so on.

[Lee.]

Originally Posted by BB_Eye

I just hate the lack of privacy options. If you change the slightest bit of personal info, it gets posted to everybody's news feed, as does every post you make on a forum. Then there is the photo uploading. You can detag photos, fair enough, but you can't take them down and when they go up, it's not only your friends that could see any old candid drunken photo of you, but your friends' friends, your friends' friends' friends and so on.

Haha.. thephoto thing drives my sister mad! I get pm's regularly just saying "get it ****ing off NOW!" And I know I've posted a not very good photo of her. Conceited witch!

[MTVN]

Originally Posted by BB_Eye

I just hate the lack of privacy options. If you change the slightest bit of personal info, it gets posted to everybody's news feed, as does every post you make on a forum. Then there is the photo uploading. You can detag photos, fair enough, but you can't take them down and when they go up, it's not only your friends that could see any old candid drunken photo of you, but your friends' friends, your friends' friends' friends and so on.

Yeah it's not very good despite their constant "improvements". I could look through a whole photo album of someone I dont know if one of my friends was tagged in a single picture.

[GypsyGoth]

I'm not a fan of FB, I don't see it adding anything to my life, so I don't use it anymore.

And I agree with whoever posted that it was her choice (about the girl who killed herself). Sounds like she thought about it a lot, and talked about it. If she done such a thing she much have been having a horrible time here.