Friday, November 23, 2007
  The Joke is on who?
The internet has changed the world so drastically in good and bad ways, we know this. Myspace and Facebook were created to find old friends and make new ones...However, slowely these two sites are turning into gossip columns about people. Secrets are posted, friends are bashed. It is getting dangerous.

I was sitting with my father today at breakfast (morning after Thanksgiving) and he handed me the paper. "You need to read this article," he said. So I did.

The title of the article was "Stop me if you heard this one." It was an article about a 13 year old girl Megan Meier, who was socially awkward, heavy set, and struggled with depression. Her best friend and her were off and on, as most kids are at that age, and finally after one more fight Megan called it quits. She did not want to be friends with this girl anymore.

One day, Megan recieved a friend request on her Myspace from "Josh." He was " a gift from the god of cute boys" (musician, homeschooled, new in town) "major hottie". The two spoke everyday, until one day Josh started to be very mean to Megan.

"I can't be friends with you anymore because I heard you were mean to your friends," said Josh. Megan was so confused and didn't understand why he would say that. The messages were getting worse. "You are a slut, the world would be better without you, everybody hates you."

After that final message Megan killed herself. Her parents found her hanging in her room.

Later, the parents come to find out that Josh never really existed. The parents of Megan's ex- best friend, created a false profile to hurt Megan.

Sadly, the parents broke no laws in doing this, and therefore, can not be prosecuted.

This is a huge effect on how media can destroy someone's life. Not just emotionally, but literally.

The story was a huge wake up call to me on how easy it is to lie or be deceitful on the internet.

Those parents are sick.
 
Comments:
My God Tyler! I just read your post. That's incredibly sad. What kind of parents are Meagan's ex-best friend? I wonder if they just said they created the profile to protect their daughter or they really are mentally deficient! WOW! I'd love for someone to do a documentary on Meagan's ex-best friend's parents (then maybe they will realize the hurt they caused Meagan).
 
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This blog is a companion piece to CCJN4394:Media Effects taught by Dr. J. Richard Stevens at Southern Methodist University.

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