Online Suicide Notes
It was bound to happen. Our most intimate moments in life and death are now public for anyone to see.
According to New America Media, 17 year-old Joshua Anson Ballard posted his last MySpace.com bulletin on Nov. 29, 2005 just a short while before fatally shooting himself. And Chris McKinstry, the founder of Mindpixel, made two posts dated January 20, 2006 on his Mindpixel Blog before taking his own life a few days later.
What’s our obligation if we stumble across something like this? Should we get involved, contact the authorities? Can we just click away without guilt? I’m not sure there is a universal answer. In the cases of Joshua and Chris, it seems that people did try to intervene before it was too late.
This has prompted me to add “suicide” to my google alerts. Perhaps the next person that decides to do this CAN be stopped.
Oscar,
What a wonderful and hopefully life-saving idea. Thanks for sharing it.