I’m sitting here watching Today Show, wasting time before I have to go to work. The Northern Illinois University report is on. Give us dirty laundry! Another desperate student opened fire on classmates.
Sensationalizing these stories is just advertising for the small percentage of weirdo students, who have a tendency to do something weird. Before TV, what did these kids do? Maybe they stripped down naked and ran around in circles, hands in the air, babbling like an idiot? Today, they get better ideas from the television. What goes through their heads now? "Ah, what an interesting story on TV. What would that feel like if I pulled my gun out and started shooting people?" Then later, distressed over something, their disturbed minds now say "I need to do something about how I feel – how about get a gun and shoot everyone, then myself, just like I saw on TV?"
Last night I was watching South Park. If you can get past the absurdity, obnoxiousness and crudity, those writers talk about things like this. Last night, it was the kids listening to the "Say No to Smoking" dance team. The kids thought it was stupid. After the presentation in the gym, the kids were outside giving smoking a shot! I’m not slighting ‘say no to smoking’ campaigns or anything like that, nor comparing it to school shootings. I’m pointing out another example of references to media that gives kids ideas to try something. It can all backfire.
Finally, I’ve read two of Malcolm Gladwell‘s books – Blink and Tipping Point (both of these are ‘must read’s’ for free thinkers.) Tipping Point is a study of the "epidemiology of ideas." How do ideas, good or bad, spread amongst people? How does the ugly Cabbage Patch Doll become the have-all end-all? Other example – Pet Rock. Super-dumb ideas, super popular. Another example of a very bad idea was teen suicide in some fishing community in the Meditteranean (I can’t remember exactly where! bear with me!) This fishing community had virtually zero teen suicides for years and years. One day, this creative distraught kid decided to kill himself. Everyone talked about this terrible event so much that it gave kids ideas, even gave kids that weren’t suicidal the idea to see what it felt like. The result was a huge spike in teen suicides in that community for decades afterwards.
Long story short, don’t talk about this CRAP at the water cooler, turn off the TV when they talk about it. Don’t allow the sensationalization of these deranged ideas spread to others. No matter the somber tone of the news stories, don’t make these kids heroes in death for the terrible things they’ve done.