Texts reveal teenager pressured her "boyfriend" to commit suicide

Took my daughter (13) and one of her close church friends (14) to the Cowboys preseason game last Saturday. I had a SRO ticket, they had my seats. Mom was a bit worried, but I said it'd be fine. From where I stand (with that ticket) I can see them, and of course they had their phones with them.

So, on the way to the game they were in the back seat, giggling, etc. We get there and I say, "Make sure you have your phones so if I need to I can get in touch." Their reply was they'd all but exhausted the batteries making silly snap-chat pictures in the back seat.

That sound you heard was me sighing mid-facepalm.

 

I also think part of the problem is these cool gadgets make it easier for that generation to disconnect from the people they are actually communicating with on them. Instead of being actual people, they are a name on an account, a profile, a faceless entity that only exists in the digital realm. I have a hard time believing this girl would have said the same things to this guy face to face. But since it was only via text, and she didn't have to really see the struggle in his eyes, it was easier for her to play puppetmaster with him. He wasn't "real," so what she was encouraging him to do wasn't "real." Until it was.

 

That's a stacked competition. I don't even know who that would be.

We should do a Facebook poll.

 

Well, you see, that day at the beach never actually happened for them unless pics of it get made part of their facebook/online world for others to see. I think we've all seen similar scenes recently, it's like their true motive for going somewhere like a game or the beach is no longer to enjoy watching the game or swimming in the sea, but instead to record themselves doing those things. Nothing's worth doing unless it can somehow be incorporated into their social media world. It's a weird new societal trend that today's kids have grown up entirely immersed in, and I'm not sure where it leads.

 

Is it tha

I don't even mind taking a picture to have a memory of an event, especially when it comes to my kids. But it was non-stop. I saw my college crew a few weeks ago. We went golfing and I took about five pictures on a hole - all action shots. Then, at the bar that night, we took a group photo. One.

 

Saddest photo of the year:



Nobody watches or soaks in history (or even a sunset). It MUST be recorded (as if 23,000,000 other similar recordings weren't available anyway). NO! MINE MUST BE THERE, TOO!

Sheeeesh.

 

Good lord, what a picture.

 

We went kayaking last weekend. Nearly everyone else we saw on the water spent the majority of their time snapping photos of themselves. When we were on our way back in to the docks, we waited while a group of people dropped in. It's a process that should take 2 minutes, tops. But they spent at least 5 minutes getting themselves arranged in their kayaks for picture time.

I'm all for taking pictures, but man. Those people were on a mission.

 

I was going to bring that moment up, too. I noticed it while watching the race a second time. Someone called into talk radio here the other day and said that he had a "come to Jesus moment" when he was watching the Jake Arrieta no-hitter the other night and saw everyone viewing the last out through their phones.

 

If you want to insult me, insult me. I do not speak for anyone else, nor am I posting at anyone else's behest.

 

This grumpy old man argument has been going on for as long as I remember, every time something new comes along. Rock and roll, television, video games, computers, the internet, and now social media. Every one was surely going to lead to the demise of our civilization.

 

But it's real this time because I'm older and don't understand things.