On air: The death of Tyler Clementi
| 14:10 UK time, Friday, 1 October 2010
Central to this is how we view this sad story and whether his desperate state of mind was caused by a) extreme embarrassment at being shown having sex, or b) by emotions specific to his sexuality and sexual behaviour becoming much more widely known that they had been before, or by c) the cumulative effect of being attacked or undermined because of his sexuality. Clearly we can't know.
(Read some accounts - - and the narrative of 'gay bullying online leads to suicide' doesn't appear to add up.)
So we'll be guided by you and your reaction to this story. I'll explain the different areas we're looking at...
1: Does social media make life harder if you are young and gay? Coming out is something that every gay person chooses to manage in their own way, and it can often be a very stressful process. Does social media make it far harder to keep control of that process? And when you are out, does it make it easier for those who disapprove of your sexuality to condemn or make fun of it?
Or should we not blame a medium for human behaviour?
These questions may or may not tie in with this story, but they're being talked about as a consequence of it.
2: Do many Americans still struggle to accept homosexuality?
highlights the 'spate of suicides' as evidence that many Americans continue to pass homophobia from generation to generation. Is that fair comment?
3: Is social media making our children's lives worse? Are the benefits of social media outweighed by the pressures that come with an online identity, and the difficulties that come with controlling it? Events and feelings that might once have been played out in the classroom are now played out online. Clearly that brings different issues, but are they any worse than those that existed before?
Another issue here is that our children now know nothing but being online. It is completely normal to doing everything there, but are the consequences of doing everything in public explained as clearly as they ought to be?
We'll take your lead on how to discuss the story...
