Formspring.me - The Next Suicide Machine

[Aggressor]

It's only been recent (past few months) that an anonymous question asking service launched, Formspring. I thought from the start, that this is pathetic. Obviously, this is the perfect method for cyber bullying. Even some of my peers at school have been harassed by anonymous idiots. I can only bet you that other people that use it will commit suicide, because issues will get worse.

I reckon this is what will happen, I couldn't of said it better. We have enough social networking trash out there. no need for more :\

 

[Zet]

To stop cyber bullying, just stop going to the place where it happens or make a new account.

 

[twocows]

Anyone that commits suicide because someone was mean to them on the internet is either crazy or not mature enough to use the internet to begin with.

 

[Aggressor]

To stop cyber bullying, just stop going to the place where it happens or make a new account.

This has been done, but most people don't :\

 

[Cherrim]

Then make use of the block feature. If it doesn't have one, complain to the creators/staff of the site that you are being harassed. If all else fails, either go to another site or make a new account. I'm not saying it's the fault of whoever is being harassed that they're, well, being harassed, but they have to put some effort into avoiding it if it's happening.

I know there's already been news that someone killed themselves over a question asked on Formspring but... that's no fault of the site. Anyone that unstable would have asked the question anywhere on the internet and followed through. Just because it happened to be on a site specifically for asking questions means nothing.

Honestly, any site with anonymity is "perfect" grounds for cyber bullying but that is the risk one has to take when they decide to use that site. :/

 

[piemeup]

I agree Forumspring is the next sucide machine, The one before it was Bathroom Wall. Already a few days ago someone forgot to his anomys and wanted to kill them self because they called another a ... you get the point. I don't see why they make things like these things...

 

[Archer]

Anyone that commits suicide because someone was mean to them on the internet is either crazy or not mature enough to use the internet to begin with.

Natural Selection.

Darwin is still right.

 

[Zet]

Natural Selection.

Darwin is still right.

Darwin isn't right, evolution would have made smarter people by now.

 

[Aggressor]

You all need to be aware that, not everyone has the brain to report it. People seem to think that they should deal with it. If people were like us, internet suicides wouldn't happen, at least not much at all.

Yeah, Lightning, I take your point 100%. As I said, it annoys me that there are people who don't listen and don't deal with problems correctly :\

 

[Pokémon Ranger ✩ Moriarty]

You all need to be aware that, not everyone has the brain to report it. People seem to think that they should deal with it. If people were like us, internet suicides wouldn't happen, at least not much at all.

I agree. Cyber-bullying is a serious matter, and one that is often not taken seriously by others - "someone's bullying you on the internet? Grow up!" Attitudes like these do not help children and teenagers in distress. Consider that most real-life bullying in schools or other public places quite often goes unreported for fear of being laughed at, or the consequences the bully themselves will wrought upon you - now factor in the distancing effect of the internet, and you have a big problem.

As nice as it is to simplify the problem to "report them / tell somebody / complain to the website maintainers", logic does not really have a place in the mind of someone being bullied. As a girl who was relentlessly picked on all throughout primary school, and who never said a word about it for fear of being disbelieved, I can understand why cyber-bullying has such a bad effect on those who fall victim to it. Bullying is bullying, and it doesn't matter what form it falls under. I wish there was more information about it out there for parents, guardians, teachers, etc. As it is, it's largely ignored until some poor kid commits suicide over it. :|

 

[Cherrim]

The way to overcome bullying is to tell someone about it. Sometimes the person you tell is useless and won't believe you or won't do a thing but that doesn't mean that the correct way to deal with it is to bottle it up and hope it goes away while passively going along with it. But this is turning into another discussion entirely.

Fact remains that it's not the site that is to be blamed, its' the people using it. It's not right to troll someone and ask cruel questions but you can't blame the site for allowing anonymous questions--they GIVE the option to only allow questions from members or even just friends, so it's up to the user to choose who to get questions from. And again, I'm not saying that the bullied person is at fault for bringing it all upon themselves--I know one can't help being bullied sometimes--but when they don't take simple action to prevent it... I find it hard to sympathize. :/ Yeah, they could be ridiculed ("So-and-so can't even keep anonymous questions on because s/he's scaaared") but one has to decide which is the greater of two evils.

The site is no more to blame than PC itself is for the bullying that can happen and has happened here.

 

[Dawn]

Natural Selection.
Darwin is still right.

That's morbidly adorable. Though lacking in political correctness.


@Twocows Just because some people are sensitive and fall for provocation and don't take the proper measures to protect themselves from potential bullies doesn't make them crazy.

I mean most young kids fall into that area. I know I did when I was young enough.

@Topic I think the point of anonymity makes it pretty hard for someone to be held responsible for their actions on the internet.

 

[twocows]

That's morbidly adorable. Though lacking in political correctness.


@Twocows Just because some people are sensitive and fall for provocation and don't take the proper measures to protect themselves from potential bullies doesn't make them crazy.

I mean most young kids fall into that area. I know I did when I was young enough.

@Topic I think the point of anonymity makes it pretty hard for someone to be held responsible for their actions on the internet.

If we're talking about young children, the parents should take more responsibility in monitoring their child's internet usage. I understand it's not always possible to watch everything a child does, but it's not that hard to check their internet history and see what sort of sites they're going to.

 

[Dawn]

If we're talking about young children, the parents should take more responsibility in monitoring their child's internet usage. I understand it's not always possible to watch everything a child does, but it's not that hard to check their internet history and see what sort of sites they're going to.

You should know as well as I that it's very hard to supervise a child on the internet if they don't want to be supervised. It's also VERY time consuming and very inconvenient.

 

[Cherrim]

I don't think it's young children who have problems with Formspring--I'd say it's more likely that it's kids in their early-to-mid teens (and possibly past that) and most parents let up on their kids' internet usage around then. And if they don't, they probably should 'cause being so restrictive at that age is a little stifling. :/

 

[Zet]

I don't know why parents haven't started using parental programs yet.

 

[dead-man-walking]

Natural Selection.

Darwin is still right.

If Darwin is right, the world will be already populated by Robots instead of Humans now.

As for the topic, Formspring could use some extra watchers if bullying still happens.

After all, a Forum is still safer.

 

[Zet]

Natural Selection.

Darwin is still right.

If Darwin was right, he wouldn't have married his first cousin.

 

[Belinda]

I don't recall being harassed or cyber bullied,but I got pervy messages from anonymous people,saying stuff like "You're cute and hot" I've seen other people get those,so I don't worry to much about it. Last time I used formspring was months ago. It's just not my kind of thing anyways.

 

[donavannj]

I don't know why parents haven't started using parental programs yet.

That's because most parents are technologically incompetent and uninformed, as well as very naive toward what their child does on the internet, and in general.