Could Facebook Make You Violent?

[Madeline]

A Florida woman has plead guilty to second degree murder after she shook her baby to death because it interrupted her by crying while she was playing the facebook app, Farmville.

Jacksonville mom shakes baby for interrupting FarmVille, pleads guilty to murder | jacksonville.com

This is not the first homicide to be linked in some way to facebook. A man in North Carolina shot and killed his ex-wife and then himself after she announced her engagement to another man on facebook, just weeks ago.

Engagement Announcement on Facebook Causes Murder-Suicide - ABC News

A Michigan woman spotted a rival she had been arguing with on facebook for days in traffic and drove the vehicle her rival was in into an intersection against the light, where her rival was killed and the driver was severely injured. She has been charged with second degree murder as well.

Facebook Feud Fuels Road Rage: Michigan Mother Torrie Lynn Emery Charged With Murder - Crimesider - CBS News

I am not suggesting facebook is any more sinister than Linked-In or USMB. But I do wonder, with the proliferation of these sites and the people on them, are we better able to aggravate our fellow man? Do we have less security, now that someone who does not like us can monitor us electronically? And finally, when we log on to the pc and stay longer than we had planned, do we experience a little of what a 'net addict might feel -- and if so, is that pull to addiction likely to make us more violent?

If you view humanity primarily through a computer monitor, does it make it easier to kill one?

 

[hjmick]

I don't know about Facebook, but, at times, USMB makes me want to throttle some folks...

 

[R.C. Christian]

Awful.

 

[chanel]

Madeline - we've had these discussions before. I think fb is potentially dangerous. It has broken up marriages, friendships, and allows angry people to spread gossip in nano-seconds.

My mother encouraged me to write "hate letters" when I was truly angry as a teen. Then I would throw them out. It was a way to vent and then calm down. With fb, every ugly word is spread over the internet and there is no way to take it back.

I imagine we will be seeing much more of this. Internet addiction can affect the best of us.

 

[HUGGY]

Could Facebook Make You Violent?



You mean like rap or opera does?

 

[Madeline]

There is some research that indicates a prolonged use of a computer or video game will alter brain chemistry and possibly even neuron pathways. Not all the changes are bad....some results indicate we will become more empathic as we are "interact" with people we never would meet face to face. But very clearly, some changes are also bad....and I wonder if the average, normal well-adjusted adult is at a risk of violent behavior he is unaware of as a result of internet usage? That risk could be tiny, but in the right time and place and circumstances -- you and you and I may have a vulnerability we don't know of.

There's been a murder committed by a man in his forties, stable marriage, kids, stable job -- all because he became drawn far too into a pyscho-drama on the 'net. It is a VERY strange true crime story, and it is not the only one like it.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313343,00.html

Weirdly, possibly sadly, the experience of readers and viewers of the reports on this murder seem to be of more interest than the impact of the crime itself on the victim or his family.

http://www.filmfetish.com/2009/12/11/award-winning-talhotblond-murder-investigation-getting-multi-platform-release/

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/2009/12/paramount-goes-digital-with.php

Do those of us who in the 20th century presented zero risk of homicidial violence (or other crimes) now present some tiny risk of it in the 21st, because of the internet?

Here's a podcast about the alteration of human experience caused by the internet you might want to hear...very listenable.....

Deanna Zandt - Share This! Change the World with Social Networking | Video on PBS & NPR Forum Network