Ethics Newsline®

We had several responses to Rushworth Kidder’s column last week about the teen’s suicide apparently linked to postings on a social networking site. This letter expresses the main theme voiced by many who took time to write:

One definition of technology is “the place where people meet things.” Technology isn’t stuff, it’s what we do with it. In that regard, we can apply the very same rules we affect in “real life.” Something happening “online” doesn’t allow one to abdicate one’s humanity. There are no special “techno” rules because “techno,” dear user, is us.

So I have to believe this horrible example of a cruelly driven suicide has nothing to do with technology, beyond the extent that the tool allows us to extend our cruel natures beyond face to face. This is no different than making war by dropping bombs from 50,000 feet. It’s not new.

I worry that we will try to apply protective measures to something that is, in its essence, a matter of human nature. Meanwhile, the civil courts could easily handle this as a wrongful death suit, and that’s likely what will happen. How sad that it will come down to measuring culpability with money. But sometimes, that’s what works.

– Rob Oakley
Rockland, Maine