Before reading “Friend Game”
by Lauren Collins, I had vaguely heard about the story of Megan Meier’s
suicide. I never knew the details of the “hoax” though. I had no idea that it
occurred in Missouri and only 38 minutes away from Washington University in St.
Louis. In the town of Dardenne Prairie with just over 10,000 people, the Meiers
live four houses down from the Drew family. Christina (Tina, for short) and Ronald
Meier were very hesitant to allow their daughter to use MySpace and enter into
the realm of social media because of her health problems:
In the third grade, Megan
told Tina that she wanted to kill herself. The Meiers took her to see a
psychiatrist. Megan was prescribed Celexa (an antidepression drug), Concerta
(for A.D.D.), and Geodon (a mood stabilizer). “I, as her mom, always felt it
was her weight. Megan always just felt like she was never enough,” Tina
recalled. “Even in kindergarten, she made a comment about how she didn’t like
her legs compared to other girls’ legs.” (3)
While Megan did have mental health issues, the major
problem here is that children do not know the dangers inherent in communicating
over social networking websites, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Their
minds are not yet fully developed and they do not understand how to properly
interact online. I would highly suggest that schools have classes teaching
students how to take caution when communicating online. For instance, during
elementary school, I had a typing class a few times each week for quite a few
years to learn how to use a computer keyboard correctly and efficiently. In
addition to taking the typing course, a social media one should be required,
too. This class would instruct children how to take advantage of such websites
in a productive manner and be sensitive towards others.
If Megan’s school had
educated her and her friends about the dangers of online culture, then “Megan
Babi” would not be one of the most well known Internet handles in MySpace
history.
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