In this tech savvy world you’d expect things to be better.
People can communicate with loved ones far away, buy things such as groceries from home, find a spouse online and the list goes on.
But everything good has a bad.
Tysen Benz, an 11 year old from Marquette, Michigan committed suicide after he got a text telling him the girl he considered his girlfriend killed herself.
Turns out the 13 year old girl had pranked Benz by faking her own death, but she didn’t get a chance to tell Benz that it was a joke.
Benz hanged himself before she got a chance to apologize and now she is facing consequences for her hoax.
“Marquette County Prosecutor Matt Wiese said on Monday that his office last week charged that 13-year-old girl with malicious use of telecommunication services and using a computer to commit a crime for sending false reports of her own death to Benz,” according to a CNN article by Evan Simko-Bednarski.
This 13 year old girl had done something that unintentionally cost someone their life. Benz now will miss those life changing times because he won’t be growing older, he won’t graduate high school, go to college, get a job or do anything that goes after. He will also miss the little things as the way his mom comforted him when he failed or the sense of accomplishment when he won something after working hard. He won’t get to play sports or go diving like his mother said he loved doing.
Not only did this change his life but his love ones as well. Katrina Goss, Benz’s mother, won’t see her son become a man. She won’t see her son blow his birthday candles, she won’t meet the person her son chooses as his sponse and she won’t see her son get married or make that wedding speech telling him how happy she is as well as proud of him.
All this for a laugh.
Another example of things going too far can be found in the new Netflix series, “13 Reasons Why,” based on the book written by Jay Asher which talks about high school student, Hannah Baker and the 13 reasons she chose to end her life.
This book was an eye opener to many because like everything else that happens in life people choose to ignore all that is bad and just hope it doesn’t happen to them.
People create a bubble, a safe space, and at times they get lucky but these things do still happen, which lead Netflix to release the show to talk about these issues that others choose to ignore.
“13 Reasons Why” became the story that was and still never told.
To the producers, which included singer/songwriter Selena Gomez, it was important to not hold back and to show the brutal truth of rape, suicide and bullying.
The show is an example of the kind of things in this society that push a person to consider suicide as an escape.
Producers had to show horrors of rape and consequences of bullying, whether intentional or not, in a way that impacted people to understand that this is a subject that can no longer be ignored.
It can be ignored because it happens. Whether in school, at home, or at work. Bullying often leads to suicide, that is a truth that people that bully others fail to see. You are ruining a unique individual, why? Does it make you feel superior? Does someone’s suffering really give you happiness? What do you do when you look into their now lifeless eyes but if you cared to look closer you would see pain, self-doubt, and resignation. Resignation because they start thinking that how things are the best things can get. They become scared of the future because that means changes and change meaning more pain and sorrow.
The unknown becomes the end.
Which is why people need to realize that words can hurt, no physically but emotionally. To some
, the ones that don’t care, might wonder why people can be affected but words but they don’t understand. Not everyone has the confidence or strength to take on the world. People being bullied are affected because they do care what others say, they take what others say at heart, and they want to fit in.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much that can have done for bullying because as shown in 13 Reasons Why people can at times miss the signs of bullying or suicide. People will just have to offer a helping hand and just listen. People going through things like bullying just ask for someone to listen and offer guidance though it would take time before they tell you. Almost like that saying about being there to catch you when you fall. Someone has to be there to listen when they break. For people bulling others it would be best to show them the consequences of their words. Volunteers could act out what could happen like the 15 seconds presentation people make for drunk drivers. And with the methods for bullying rising it with technological advances it might become inevitable.