Current event I
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| Christopher Dawley died at the age of 17 (John General/CNN) |
Media platforms accountable for a teenage suicide
A 16-year-old teenager Christopher James Dawley, called CJ by his family and friends, committed suicide in 2015. These days, however, his parents, Donna Dawley and Chris Dawley, file for a wrongful death lawsuit against social media company Snap ( a parent company of Snapchat and Meta, which is a parent company of Facebook and Instagram). The teenage boy's parents described him as a social media addict and highly obsessed with his body image. His addiction cannot be doubted, as even in his last moments of life, he published updates on social media. Finally, on the 4th of January, his mother found him lifeless with a smartphone in his hand covered in blood. They claim that the cause of his obsession was the algorithm made to maximise users' stay on the social media platform. The lawsuit claims that the algorithm controls minor users' decisions and controls their thoughts as they do not have their brains developed yet. Christopher's parents believe that his mental health was worse due to these sites' ''addictive nature''. They filed the lawsuit as Frances Haugen leaked internal data about Facebook engaging in unlawful activities. Some data even showed that the company is aware of how Instagram can cause mental health problems and damage body image.
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| Christopher's parents, Chris and Donna (John General/CNN) |
The Dawley family is not the only one who files a lawsuit against social media companies. Many parents complain about how the platform negatively influences young children, makes them addicted, and leads to irreversible activities. I believe that this matter is severe, and unfortunately, this is not the only case that happened. Therefore, the companies should change the way of making a profit (algorithms) and regulate these platforms. I am aware of the age restriction on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat; this is not effective. For example, children can quickly write a different age or click on a button that confirms that they are above 15. There has to be some solution that these companies will use to protect young children and their mental health.
Murphy Kelly, S., & General, J. (2022, April 19). Their teenage children died by suicide. Now these families want to hold social media companies accountable. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/19/tech/social-media-lawsuits-teen-suicide/index.html
I am glad, that you mentioned, that also boys and men can suffer from issues related to body image and how it is portrayed in media. And that the pressure on them is the same as on girls and women. Unfortunately, in this example, that you mentioned, we can observe the fatal consequences of the "standards of, how bodies should look like." I would say, that nowadays, media should use its potential in a positive way and emphasize those fatal consequences and try to avoid them.
ReplyDeleteIt is insane how nowadays children and teenagers spend loads of time on their smartphones, however, it has become quite a standard unfortunately. This event that you described is a perfect example of the fact how social media algorithms are designed to glue teenagers to the screen, and they get swallowed up in the online world. This can have fatal consequences as you described because they start to perceive the online world as a reality, which it never is, but it is understandable that at that young age, they cannot realize it. I am aware that the more people (children, teenagers) on social media, the better for the social media companies, but I hope that they realize they need to start emphasize more the mental health of minors above all.
ReplyDeleteThese extreme cases always seem to leave a mark and make me look at things differently. Thank you for mentioning events like this, because even though they may seem (and are) horrifying, they are happening and they should be talked about more, so people raise consciousness about issues like these. To repeat what Daniela said, I also like that you are talked about how body image affects not only girls and women, but also boys and men, which makes it even more "real". We, as society, need to realise what the media does to our mental health and we have to learn how to protect us from the media hurting us')
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