Just reading the tragic reports on Music-news.com of the suicide of The Models singer James Freud, who killed himself in his melbourne home after many years fighting alcoholism.
It’s a harrowing enough story on its own merits but I was further disturbed to see a little flag at the top of the news item which offered surfers the opportunity to “Be the first of your friends to like this” by clicking a button marked ‘Like’ with a ‘thumbs up’ symbol on it.
Has our faith in the power of systems totally degraded our sense of decency?
Systems are running our lives. Banks, government, big companies – they all have faith in systems which, supposedly, can handle any eventuality.
We’ve all suffered from them. A good example is the phone tree that doesn’t have an option which covers the thing you want to talk about.
People devise these little systems and then let them loose on us, and we have to try to deal with them. I imagine it’s all part of modern humanity’s conviction that everything can be dealt with by a system, a flow chart, a computer – anything other than a one-to-one relationship with another human being.
‘Be the first of your friends to like this’ is emblematic of the whole process. Some faceless programmer designed that little flag to give us – the users (or more accurately, the used) – the illusion that we’re communicating, taking part in something, being members of a virtual community.
However, that programmer wasn’t thinking about James Freud’s parents or James freud’s friends. in fact, that programmer wasn’t thinking.
There’s no way to like suicide. No way to like famine, no way to like celebrity idiocy or any of the other eventualities that a system like this doesn’t cater for.
I don’t much like systems. Never have.
I like people but, then again, I’m not so keen on the ones who think that systems can handle everything for us.
Systems are inhuman. However hard we might try to make them perfect they will always fall apart when tested by the everyday, mundane requirements of simple people like me.
I didn’t know James Freud but I do know that he and those who loved him should never have to see a button inviting web surfers to ‘like’ his death.
Systems. Don’t get me started.
2 Responses to HOW MUCH DO YOU LIKE THIS SUICIDE?
It’s unfortunate that ‘like’ options come up for all news stories, however inappropriate. I’m sure the inventor of that system would cringe at its appearance on stories like that – well, I hope he/she would. And I would hope readers wouldn’t blindly press ‘like’ without expressing their sadness at Freud’s suicide.
I’m not a fan of the obsession with everyone ‘liking’ or opining on everything – I sometimes become frustrated during the news when they spend lots of time eliciting the often inane comments of a few individuals, when doing a large survey of the opinions of hundreds of people and presenting the findings as a pie chart would be so much more representative. If I want to hear individuals’ viewpoints I’ll choose the individuals and read their blogs/articles/facebook comments.
I do think many systems have their uses – flow chart algorithms are useful in many cases in medicine or nursing where time and accurate treatment are of the essence in the clinical care of someone with a severe acute illness such as a cardiac arrest, a non-arresting heart attack or a severe asthma attack. But I absolutely agree with you, Johnny, that it isn’t a substitute for personal care of the individual. I know when I’ve been a patient in hospital the kind words and little considerate acts – extra blankets, glass of water, smiles – have been easily as valuable to me as the essential medicine and surgery. Maybe to the clinicians they don’t seem as important because they’re not life saving, but in terms of making a difference to your state of mind, they’re essential.
It’s sad to hear about Freud’s suicide. It’s a real shame that in an era where we’ll soon be sending people on holidays in space, the options for help for people who feel suicidal are still so limited. Couldn’t we have a phone support system for those on the brink with trained counsellors and psychiatric nurses on hand? I know The Samaritans exists but I think it’s run on a volunteer basis, and the name still has connotations – religious, pious – that might put some people off.
Hey Leyla, lovely to hear from you again!
I take the point about some systems being useful but that’s probably the starting point for our blind faith that systems can handle everything.
And I couldn’t agree more with your point about newsreaders telling us what Harry in Huddersfield thinks about the tsunami or what Mavis in Middlesborough feels about the torture of prisoners in Iraq.
I watch the news to learn what experts think about what’s going on in the world. Harry and Mavis are perfectly free to opine about anything they choose down the pub, but their kneejerk reactions are certainly not what I pay my tv licence for.
I suppose there are two reasons why it’s done. 1. it’s cheap tv time, and 2. it helps create the illusion/further the myth of democracy and free speech.
It’s the idiot bastard child of the Tweet metality and the fifteen minutes of fame syndrome.
Still, as long as David Attenborough lives, there’s maybe some hope for humanity. (I just watched a documentary about his life, so I’m feeling all warm and comfy)