Cairo, Egypt
In this day and age it if fair to say that media affects our lives pretty significantly. However, I was not prepared for the previous weeks news paper articles. I don’t know if anyone has picked up the news paper since the hanging of Saddam Husein, but apparently a few of the spectators caught the hanging on their cell phone cameras (oh the joy of technology), and then proceeded in their corrupt little brains to put it on Utube for all to see. Little did these people know how many people allow the media to dictate their lives, and a few children and adults, and by a few I of course mean a dozen and maybe more now, decided to also give up their lives the same way that Saddams was forced to. Yes, that’s right they hung themselves, the exact same way that Saddam was hung, all because they were able to see this horrible display of punishment on even things such as national television. I cannot believe the impact that the media played in these peoples lives, and the effects technology can have on ones life. I am absolutly stunned.
zipzapzoop said,
January 24, 2007 at 5:20 am
As horrible as it was (and I was truly disgusted that you could not only watch the hanging on youtube but all over the news) I am not shocked that people picked up on the idea. There are always the “copy cats” after an event for example school shootings. This is why group therapists have to be careful, especially when dealing with criminals and/or suicidal people in that there is not simply an exchange of ideas.
However the idea of cell phones cameras recording these things is hard to wrap my head around. For example the bombings in London a little over a year ago. Most of the footage of that came from cell phones. This not only seems strange but really we can constantly be watched. Cell phones are everywhere and with all the functions on them now it is possible for pictures and videos to be taken without our knowledge and spread across the internet etc.