Malaysian police are investigating whether a 16-year-old girl committed suicide after her social media followers voted for her to do it (http://news.trust.org/item/20190515091101-3ss0p).
The girl jumped off a roof to kill herself–after, police say, she polled her Instagram followers and 69% of them voted “Death.” Instagram hastens to claim that actually 88% voted “Life”–but by then it was too late.
In Malaysia, “abetting suicide” is a capital offense.
Has social media become an idol, a false god? Go ahead, tell me that it hasn’t. This is peer pressure on steroids.
We please the true God by loving one another and keeping His commandments. He would never ask us to kill ourselves. But false gods always demand much more of us than the Father ever does.
Are we ready to change our ways yet? Or would we rather slide a bit further down this slope?
Are you sure this wasn’t a satire that Reuters picked up as a true story? Reuters isn’t very trustworthy. However, given the state of instasociety and the Culture of Death today, it may very well be true.
I have no convenient way of checking up on Reuters. After all, Malaysia is pretty far away. But this story seemed to fit a pattern already familiar.
I know. That’s what’s so sad … the once-unthinkable has become the norm.
It astounds me how seriously youngsters tale the very casual “friendships” of social media. This is very, very sad.
You hit it on the nail: “Has social media become an idol, a false god? Go ahead, tell me that it hasn’t. This is peer pressure on steroids.”