TIPSters, Thought you might find this news account interesting (and sad). It reports the story of a 21 year old man who announced his intention to commit suicide while online in a chat room (and he did go through with it), while many people throughout the world watched him do this (via his webcam on his computer) and, according to reports, no one did anything [some even egged him on, encouraging him to do it].
In many ways, it is a real-life analog of the processes at play in the classic experiment by Darley & Latane (1968) (the "seizure experiment"). [citation below] Here's the link: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0204webfolo04-ON.html I've also pasted the story below. --Todd Todd D. Nelson, Ph.D. Gemperle Foundation Distinguished Professor Department of Psychology California State University 801 W. Monte Vista Ave. Turlock, California 95382 (209) 667-3442 (209) 664-7067 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.csustan.edu/psych/todd/index.html Darley, J. M., & Latane, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. JPSP, 8, 377-383. ----------------------------------------------- Web world moved by chat-room death Bragging in the hour before he died, Brandon Vedas ingested large doses of Klonopin, Methadone, Restoril and Inderal, along with marijuana and 151-proof rum. Judy Nichols The Arizona Republic Feb. 4, 2003 07:15 PM The death of Brandon Vedas has put the Internet he loved on trial. Brandon, 21, had frequented chat rooms since he was a little boy. He died after taking a fatal overdose while others in a chat room egged him on and watched him on a camera hooked up to his Phoenix computer. The Internet world that promises intimacy and connection, and is now the place where people from around the globe are posting condolence messages, is the same world that abandoned the computer whiz at his most vulnerable moment. "The paradox is that part of what the Internet always promised is community," said Carlton Kendrick, a family therapist and author in Boston. "And isn't it intriguing and sad that here a young man goes with a group of people he chatted with frequently, and their response when they see him pass out is to do nothing." Brandon's family is being comforted by the hundreds of messages pouring into Web sites. Some are from people Brandon met in his cyber travels, others are from people who only read about his death. "I'm too upset for words," wrote John Power of the Czech Republic. Others write from Norway, Canada, England, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, and all across the United States. Some are from friends: "You were the first to show me how to use a computer and how to jump from a diving board," wrote Rachel Monroe of Lakeside. Some from family: "I never lost faith in you. . . . Dad." Kendrick said people should realize that there are few laws that limit activity on the Internet. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act requires children under 13 to have verifiable consent to participate in interactive sites like chat rooms or games. "But beyond 13, we're out there in the Gold Rush Days like 'Wild Bill' Hickock and Billy the Kid," Kendrick said. But Kendrick said he believes Brandon's case could spur civil lawsuits and new legislation. "These people witnessed somebody contenting to injure himself and then saw him collapse and did nothing," Kendrick said. "To me, it's like a hit-and-run driver." Brandon's death also introduced his family to a twisted online scene they had never known. His brother, Rich Vedas, a sales account manager in California, is on a trip through a kind of virtual worm hole as he attempts to find out what happened in Brandon's last hours. He began his detective work at a Web site Brandon frequented called The Shroomery, a site dedicated to information about "magic mushrooms," or psilocybin. The drug was made popular in the 1960s by Harvard psychology professor Timothy Leary who was convinced that it could help map the uncharted frontiers of the mind and urged others to "Tune in, turn on and drop out." The Shroomery site says it "was created to help stop the spread of dangerous misinformation related to magic mushrooms, so that people can make intelligent, informed decisions about what they put in their bodies." On the site is a link to the chat room where Brandon signed in on the night he died using the name "ripper." Logs from that night show Brandon and others talking about sex and drugs, with Brandon bragging about what he was taking. Rich went to the chat rooms and asked people to tell him what happened. "I talked with one person who called 911 at one point but then was talked out of it, and it turns out it's a 16- or 17-year-old," Vedas said. "It's a big shock to us," said Brandon's sister, Jill Rice, 27, of Peoria. "Some of the people in this chat room were teenagers. Their parents need to be aware of what they are doing." Rice said Brandon often picked her children up from school and was teaching her 5-year-old to tie her shoes. "I told them Brandon has gone to heaven," she said. Vedas said one of the administrators of the site, who goes by the name "Thor," said he was so disturbed by what happened that he had resigned. "He had no involvement in what went on that night, and he told me that, 'If somebody we care about could die, if something like this could happen, I don't want any part of it,' " Vedas said. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
