Recently, I heard about the Amanda Todd suicide story. A fifteen-year-old girl from Vancouver committed suicide after a three-year-long battle with constant bullying and friendlessness. About a month before Amanda died, she created a flashcard video on YouTube telling the world her story. While her cry for help before her death did not stop her from taking her life, the responses to her story have been outrageous, giving hope to others who are contemplating suicide.
Because YouTube took down Amanda’s video after her death, I have been unable to read the comments from people who saw her video when she first posted it. However, this story has reminded me of a story I read in January of this year. Ben Breedlove, an eighteen-year-old with a chronic heart condition, had created a video using flashcards to tell the story of his life. He had the video ready so that if and when he passed away his parents could post it, sharing his story with the world. In response to his video, thousands of people created flashcard videos telling the stories of their lives, beginning the flashcard video movement. I spent hours watching video after video and reading the incredibly positive comments that people had posted in response to people opening up about their lives. In my opinion, this movement changed the community of YouTube. It went from a website where people share funny things to a place where people can truly love each other. Through sharing the stories of their own lives, people were and are able to open up and receive support from others.
The Amanda Todd story and reminder of the Ben Breedlove story have gotten me really thinking about the Internet. While I still believe that the Internet can cause a lot of harm, it definately succeeds in connecting people. The Internet is a place that allows perfect strangers to speak truth into each other’s lives. It is a place where people who otherwise wouldn’t be willing to be vulnerable can will themselves to open up and receive the support that they so desperately need. These stories remind us that we have the chance to speak love or hate into every relationship, whether it be a face-to-face relationship or a cyber relationship. We really do have the opportunity to change lives by something as simple as an encouragement on a depressed individuals YouTube video or a warm hello as we pass someone on the hill. I believe that the legacies of Amanda Todd and Ben Breedlove are reminders of just that!
Amanda’s Video: http://www.ibtimes.com/amanda-todd-15-commits-suicide-after-sharing-video-about-her-bullying-ordeal-video-845399
Ben’s Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90q15xbXCRM
I had never heard of this before, and was not even aware what a flashcard video was. Thank you for introducing me to this positive aspect of what youtube has done for people.
Most of my personal experience on youtube has been around amusing videos of people embarrassing themselves and smaller creative videos educating viewers to new and interesting forms of self-expression.
I think this directly relates to our conversations in class about the changes in how people communicate online and the theorized dehumanizing effects of the web. Reading the comments shows me a community touched by emotions and responding with support for families and loved ones, not one separated and “flaming” against others for no reason.
I really appreciate your perspective on the effects to these videos. We’ve had to read so many articles about why social media sites are bad that it’s nice to see that there are benefits to using these sites.
I also watched a number of these videos and it was amazing to see the outpouring of support for the individuals. Strangers were writing loving comments because they empathesized with the individual. Calacanis believes that we lack empathy because of our use of social networking sites, but I think this a great counterargument to that claim. Even though there may have been some negative comments on these videos, the majority of posts were positive. The posts were uplifting because people wanted the individual to know that they had support. The commenters realized that the individual was struggling and they wanted to give them words of encouragement. Thus, I don’t think that people lack empathy because of their use of these social media sites. I think that we all have the capacity for empathy, but I think we have a choice of whether or not we want to show it.
It surprises me a little that such positive comments could come from a website like YouTube, given the internet’s previous experience with suicide attempts and commenters (see: Justin.tv). That said, it is really cool that people could come together like that in such a positive way, especially given that YouTube comments tend to basically be the dregs of internet society. Hopefully this is a trend that can start picking up in the future.