Abraham Biggs, age 19 commits suicide November 21, 2008 in front of a live streaming audience.
On Justin.tv today, Abraham K. Biggs of Broward County, FL committed suicide while spectators stood by idly, and watched. The facts known are these:
- Abraham Biggs was on the Bodybuilding forum within Justin.Tv, and posted that he was going to kill himself
- The 19 year old took several pills, on camera.
- There were several people in the chatroom, watching the live stream while he was on, and discussing killing himself.
- Some people on the stream called the Sheriff’s Department.
- Some people watching the stream goaded him and egged him on to commit suicide – mocking him, calling him names etc.
- Abraham laid down on his bed after taking the pills and fell asleep – with the camera rolling
- Abraham died in his bed
- EMS and Police Broke down his door to find him, while the video streamed on
Read the original story where I read this at TimesOnline.Com
What. In. The. Hell.
There’s a couple of things here that need to be discussed. Let’s start out with the fact that this boy was obviously troubled, had some issues and had turned to this particular community to talk him out of it. They didn’t.
- The next obvious segway here is to the people egging him on. There’s a few different ways to look at this.
For me, I get that people get exhausted with the “Poor Poor Pity Me” parties but, at the same time, this guy is telling a community that he’s going to kill himself – why on Earth would people goad him on? Mock him? We’ve allowed ourselves to become so jaded that we can’t even drum up a little compassion for someone who is obviously having a terrible time, and is reaching out for some help? These people have to now live with what they did and how they behaved today for the rest of their lives, and for some it may be a while before they are going to really understand what part they had in this. I sincerely hope that those people have some sort of support system, because when the fact that a few words probably could’ve saved this guy’s life jumps up and bites them in the ass, that’s going to be a rough time for all of them.
- My next issue is in a little ABC article I read talking about how we need to quick-like-a-bunny regulate the internet as a result of this. My question is this: Just what would you like to do to eliminate random acts like this on the internet? Better yet, if you know of a way to regulate how people behave in an open forum, can you do us a favor and stomp out world hunger, cure cancer, evoke world peace and fix the economy while you’re at it?
The internet cannot be regulated to stop acts like this. The good news is that people are in general good, and things like this are not the norm. There have been some awful events in the world, but that doesn’t stop us from moving forward and living our lives. The internet is not at fault here. Justin.Tv is not at fault here. I’ve seen numerous reports that the moderators did nothing to stop the suicide, and took it as a hoax. The fact is, Justin.TV right this moment as I write this, has 433 live streams right now. That’s a lot. There’s been a ton of criticism towards Justin.Tv for their lack of action in this case. Let me ask this: Is Walmart responsible for what a customer does in their parking lot? Can they control those actions? If someone wanted to kill themselves in Wal-mart’s bathroom, would we be crying out to shut down all Wal-Marts, and then criticizing their chain as a whole because they had no clue someone was in the bathroom taking a fatal overdose of prescription medicine? No. We would say “What a disturbed person. How awful that he felt that was the only solution to his problems.”
- Next thing to watch is a lawsuit against Justin.Tv for what Abraham K. Biggs did, on their site – holding them responsible. It’s not fair, but that’s just how this world seems to work nowadays. Justin.Tv is trying to give the world a voice. I’m very sad that Abraham chose this act to broadcast his voice. But, it’s not Justin.Tv’s fault. It’s not even the fault of the people in the chatroom. Suicide is a personal choice, made usually with a very irrational mindset, and I’m very sad for his family and friends that he made the choice to do this.
