Another example of what I've been worried about

For decades I have been complaining about the increasingly over stimulated and artificial quality of life. Here is an article about a group of young people who are committing suicide
"so that they can have a memorial site set up about them by their friends." I wish I was joking but I am not. You must read this and also the reader comments that are very thoughtful. The one that pointed out that people "are losing their grip on reality" is the best summary phrase. Kids are spending hours in front of computers, and grew up in front of television. I'm telling you that the human body and mind cannot function in such an electronic and artificial world that has been created. People, wake up, this is of the upmost importance.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=BBBNL5NJHEC4BQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/23/nsuicide123.xml

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Detectives fear a bizarre suicide craze is sweeping through teenagers in a small town fuelled by chat on social networking sites after seven friends took their own lives.

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Many of the victims had their own web pages on the social networking site Bebo, which they spent hours on each day. After their deaths a special site is set up where friends can leave messages, photographs and videos.

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The latest victim is Natasha Randall, 17, who was found hanged at her family home last Thursday. Within 24 hours two of her friends had tried to kill themselves. One 15-year-old girl was on a life support machine yesterday while the other, also 15, was recovering after slitting her wrists.

Police, who are investigating a possible suicide chain, fear the teenagers think it is "cool" to have an internet memorial site and are killing themselves to achieve kudos among their peer group.

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Her death follows those of Gareth Morgan, 27, Liam Clarke, 20, Thomas Davies, 20, David Dilling, 19, Dale Crole, 18, and Zachary Barnes, 17. Like Miss Randall, all lived in and around Bridgend in south Wales and all are being linked.

Miss Randall was in her first year on a Care and Childhood Studies course at Bridgend College. Her stepmother, Katrina, said the teenager spent hours every day on her computer using the name "Wildchild".

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Thomas Davies' mother, Melanie, 38, said: "It's like a craze - a stupid sort of fad. They all seem to be copying each other by wanting to die.

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(This is a very valuable comment by a poster to this article)

Though few can see or admit it, the problem goes much deeper than taking 'advice' from semi-literate, immature and irresponsible 'peers' – virtual strangers in a wild world of ‘social networking’. Somehow, a generation seems to be losing its grasp of reality. No cognisance of: life, death, family, self-worth, respect nor a sense of social responsibility … all missing. Why? Has a new questioning generation simply been overwhelmed by the repugnance of: illegal wars, savings / pensions plundered by bankers greed and going unpunished, constant threats of terror by control freaks; non-stop images of sex, violence, mindless consumerism and waste – all being ‘normal’; coupled with mass indifference and impotence then denial – all taking a terrible toll? A generation unable to grasp that ‘kudos on a memorial website after death’ is beyond meaningless? A lost world where remote peer approval is more valued than life, love and family? The ‘social networking’ experiment, though easy to scapegoat, is a symptom of a far, far deeper and disturbing malaise. Something is going drastically awry and nobody seems able to see, or bring themselves to admit, what it is. In the face of an evermore dysfunctional ‘society' and the self-aggrandising ‘gatekeepers’ thereof, simply blaming Bebo is not the answer. Alas, as George Orwell (Eric Blair) prophetically wrote, “To be normal in an abnormal world is no virtue.” Posted by Robert Henry on January 23, 2008 6:19 AM

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The world is going into a very desperate place of trouble. I cannot emphasize this enough. It is all self inflicted because as the poster above points out an artificial "life" has replaced genuine grip on reality of life, love and family.