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Facebook, Myspace users 'a danger to the world and themselves'


  3. richjm
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Online social networking site users are more likely to carry out extreme actions and develop a warped sense of their own identity, according to an expert at the West London Mental Health Trust.

Dr Himanshu Tyagi also suggested the sites may explain the recent Bridgend suicides, in which 17 young people from the same small town all killed themselves, and added:

""People used to the quick pace of online social networking may soon find the real world boring and unstimulating, potentially leading to more extreme behaviour to get that sense.

"Young people who have no experience of a world without online societies put less value on their real world identities and can therefore be at risk in their real lives, perhaps more vulnerable to impulsive behaviour or even suicide."

So is this there truth in this or is this sensational nonsense, akin to the claim that all emos class 'flirting with death' as a hobby? Is this an expert warning of the valid cons of the ever-expanding world of social networks or a man out of touch with today's modern communication methods?
richjm

33 responses // Facebook, Myspace users 'a danger to the world and themselves'

  • It's just his opinion and it siunds pretty stupid to me. It's not as if you can blanket the countless millions of people that visit those sites into one, huge, misanthropic category. Also, I'm perplexed at his premise that Facebook and Myspace make real life boring. Ignoring how silly that is, by the same logic television, video games, novels and essentially anything that provides any sort of excitement leads to suicide, boredom with real life and death.

    So yeah, it's pretty much just a sensationalistic psuedo-study.
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    Saladin
    1 response to this
  • We should tread carefully on data that has been produced by "experts" since this chap is obviously no expert on social networking...
    phillyharper
  • He's either on to something or on something.
    huntre
  • Yes I feel the law of diminishing returns every time I open Facebook, so I have to click more things before I am satisfied and can close it. Facebook has beat me!
    sustainablejohn
  • HA! DEAD ON! how sad is it that the majority of most peoples' identities are centered around their lame-ass myspace. Intelligent, self-actuallized people see the hollow neediness of these "networking" sites. And nobody buys the "I use it for communication" excuse, you just have a poor sense of self and reality and you're desperate for attention. When I hear about people my age who have them I ask, are you a re-incarnated 13-year-old girl? No? then grow the fuck up.
    pirho338
  • I'd like to give this study a shot but just from the article it seems like another scientist wildly misinterpreting something he doesn't fully understand. I think it's safe to say whatever the cause for a rise in suicides it's much more complex than blaming it on a handful of social networking sites.
    brad149
  • If I think about it those sites were like the gateway network for my induction into the current family. Thank you, insatiable urge to connect.
    arturogarza
    1 response to this
  • Believe it or not, I do not lotsa kids who think that if no one sees their myspace, no one sees Them. Or maybe that's just the small town in me speaking.
    Nuevarine
  • I have more friends on myspace than I do in the real world. This study is libel! Ha!
    beekay
  • http://current.com/items/88863408_myspace_members_on_ir...
    It's true, but not why you would think. . .
    CarlosIsDown
  • myspace is a good way of getting some random ass

    Ironically its a real good way of going to jail
    clayjj05
  • I wonder if these "experts" took the time to create a user account themselves...

    "hey, my buddy from Med School is on here!"
    Audiogeek
  • Probably the most extreme action I have taken since joining Facebook has been to not actively use Facebook. Go figure...
    maasanova
    1 response to this
  • Hells bells, facebook makes me normal! I was WAY more warped before starting on that site.
    nudge, nudge, wink wink...
    alicynx
  • This is social darwinism at its finest! if people become so warped over getting a facebook poke that they foreget to go outside and play some f*cking kick ball or something, fine, let them, the gene pool is better off.
    abbo
  • I'll agree that changing something about your real self is more difficult than changing something about your online self. This might explain how some might find the real world more frustrating than their social networking sites.
    ultravphunter
  • I only use facebook for the stupid time sucking games it has.
    Oh well, its just an excuse to waste time!
    christina71
  • When MySpace and Facebook first started as networking sites, it revolutionized the way we communicate on a daily basis...However, adding more and more modules (karaoke, applications, gifts, celebrities, tv shows, music,quizzes ...) only bulks up your online identity with more facets, thus creating a much more complex personality that can often be different from the real one...
    People end up spending more time developing this virtual identity than their actual one...
    Blackgossbo
  • So If I Sit On Facebook All Day Im Going To Want To Kill Myself?
    DonPatch
  • hahaha oh my god
    samonster34
  • there is no net productivity in happiness or ease of life since these things debuted
    suffolkbikes
  • what's worse is the number of shitty bands who manage to get a following on myspace , and then get signed - it affects our whole culture .
    malathion
  • i *already* have a warped sense of my own identity.
    saskia
  • You can't take the doctor seriously unless he has a controlled study involving thousands of subjects over a very long period. But it's fodder for discussion, no?
    JazzWithGene
  • i used to get random adds off 14 year old emo girls on myspace that drove me to the point of insanity.
    then all the bands trying to add me nearly drove me to insanity.
    now none of this happens, and this makes me MAD!!! Am I not good enough for you anymore...!? eh!?
    Ben_Traffic_UK
  • If one doesn't have a strong true sense of one's identity, then it would be easy to be influenced by another, good or bad. So maybe some kids decide they want to make a grand statement, like suicide, (which probably started out as a dare) little did they realize, the peer presure would cause it to be their last...knowledge and awareness, two powerful tools...but ignorance the great destroyer...

    Is the good doctor speculating, based on yet another tragedy..?
    PlatoTacius
  • Hmm, so Ireland with Bebo as the number 1 website and sign up rate of 80-90% for 13-28 year olds, is in big trouble ....
    Owwmykneecap
  • Wow, fascinating! I'm going to twitter about this and then post it to my myspace page and my blog!

    ;-)
    steev
  • OK, so I guess this makes me the "control" subject of this internet experiment. I've been on line daily since 1996. And I have never had the slighest interest in setting up a myspace or facebook account. So how would the study define me?
    Brockie
  • Like me, Brockie.
    "Virtually Non-Existant".
    I'd be insulted if I weren't a fictional character.
    huntre

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