Social Media: Attention

57% of people in the United States actively use social media and spend roughly around 2.7 hours of their day reading their social media pages. There are 2.08 billion social media accounts in the entire world, which include your classic Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Facebook Messenger (Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015). The question is, what do people do on their social media pages and how do they use them. The most common ways people use their social media is to connect with their friends and family, read up on different issues that interest them, and search for help with a problem that they have. Although, social media offers amazing things right in the palms of your hands, there are some issues that people have with these privileges. One of the biggest issues is that social media has become extremely obsessive and centralized in people’s lives. All they care about is attention and how many likes they get on a post. Take Michelle Carter for example, who convinced her boyfriend to commit suicide through text and immediately went to social media for sympathy and to gain attention for her lost boyfriend. Social media is now very powerful and becoming very centralized into our lives, all the way to the point where attention from a Facebook “Like” matters more than a person’s life.

Conrad Roy III was just 18 years old when his girlfriend, Michelle Carter, convinced him to committed suicide. Hours before the suicide, Roy was texting Carter about killing himself. She knew that Roy was severely depressed and was looking for help, but instead of helping she kept encouraging him to do it. Carter said, “You just have to do it…” “You have everything you need. There is no way you can fail. Tonight is the night. It’s now or never” (‘It’s Now Or Never’…). Even though Roy was very hesitant to commit suicide, his texts saying, “I am gonna eventually. I really don’t know what I’m waiting for but I have everything lined up”, Carter was determined to have him commit suicide (Girlfriend Charged for Encouraging Boyfriend’s Suicide). She showed her frustrations to him through a text, “You always say you are going to do it but you never do. I just want to make sure tonight is the real thing” Toward the end of night around 6:25 the last text we sent between the two. Roy ended up getting in his pick up truck and driving to a parking lot to beginning the process of creating carbon monoxide inside his car. It is said that Carter and Roy where on the phone when he was in his truck getting ready and once the carbon monoxide starting working Roy got scared and exited the vehicle. Eventually, Carter convinced him to get back in the truck and finish. The next day Roy was found dead in the parking lot with his pick up truck filled with carbon monoxide produced from a combustion engine (‘It’s Now Or Never…).

Soon after the discovery of Roy’s suicide Carter was on twitter searching for attention. She tweeted, “Such a beautiful soul gone too soon” and a little while later she tweeted, “I’ll always remember your bright light and smile. You’ll forever be in my heart, I love you Conrad”(Girlfriend Charged for Encouraging Boyfriend’s suicide). She also organized a Baseball game fundraiser in the honor of Roy where the description of the event read, “I want to put myself out there to try to save as many other lives as possible”. When any of Roy’s friends mentioned it in one of their post trying to promote it she would text them to make sure they weren’t taking credit for her idea (‘It’s Now Or Never’).  It is clear that in the end, Carter was in search for attention through Roy’s death and posts on social media.

It is hard to believe that someone could take another persons life by pushing them to their limit while they are at their weakest point. And it is even more difficult to believe that it is all for attention on social media. I have seen some crazy things on social media pages, but nothing as crazy as this. What has the world come to where how many like you get on a picture or post becomes a bigger deal than someone else’s life. Overall, social media is becoming king in our generation and we have to realize that there are more important thing’s going on that what you are reading, posting, and liking on your computer and phone screens.  

Works Cited

"Girlfriend Charged for Encouraging Boyfriend's Suicide:." Bizarrepedia RSS. N.p., 07 Sept. 2015. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

Kemp, Simon. "Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015." We Are Social RSS. N.p., 21 Jan. 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Murdock, Sebastian. "'It's Now Or Never' Texted Teen Charged in Boyfriends Suicide." Huffington Crime. Huffington Post, 26 Aug. 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.