Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - Posts
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News from the trial of Lori Drew, the mother whose MySpace hoax allegedly led her 13-year-old daughter's friend Megan Meier to commit suicide: Drew was convicted of three misdemeanor charges of accessing computers without authorization but not the more serious charge of conspiracy.
Drew apparently set up the fictional "Josh" profile that became a conduit through which her daughter, a teenage employee, and others sent cruel messages to Megan, including one that said, "The world would be a better place without you." That final message, which apparently directly preceded Megan's suicide, is said to have been typed by Drew's employee Ashley Grills.
I'm not familiar enough with the laws to know whether this trial should have happened in the first place or ended appropriately—though it does seem like a slightly overreaching attempt to wring justice out of a heartbreaking scenario. But Drew is without a doubt guilty of stupendous, mind-boggling stupidity and poor judgment. She was apparently inspired to set up the profile out of a desire to protect her daughter, who had a sometimes-friend, sometimes-enemy relationship with Megan. Though it contradicts the morals of the innumerable trend articles, news segments, and cautionary Law & Order: SVU story lines, maybe it's best to leave the Wild West of social networking to the kids. Obviously, some controls on kids' Internet use are important. But attempting to co-opt their means of communication and socializing without understanding the rules and the potential for abuse can be disastrous. Drew gave her daughter, her daughter's friends, and Grills the means to torture a depressed girl. They could've done it without Drew (I'm sure "Josh" isn't the first fake profile ever set up to toy with targeted girl's emotions), but having a mother involved legitimized behavior that most kids try to hide from the parental units.
I am eternally grateful that the pinnacle of Internet communication was IMing when I was in high school.
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Melinda,
Thanks for sharing news of Laura Bush's memoir. I'll admit, I've always liked Laura. I don't think it's fair to project our hopes and dreams onto another woman just because she's married to the president. (Meghan's excellent post about Michelle Obama sums up my feelings well.) Yes, it's a position that offers much power, but if a first lady is not comfortable doing big things in the glare of such a bright spotlight, she's not going to be very good at it. Her more traditional first lady role of working to improve literacy and raising awareness on breast cancer and heart disease might not be world-changing, but it suits her.
As for her book, well, I rarely buy memoirs. I find them generally self-indulgent and not terribly revealing. Did we get all the dirt on Bill and Monica in his memoir? Doubtful. If there's anything to be said about Laura's stated intention to write a book that is "positive ... with a minimum of criticism," it's that, well, the honesty is refreshing. So, no, I won't buy it. The vast majority of the reading I do these days is children's picture books, but, if I have energy enough at the end of the day to do more than curl up with my remote and whatever's on the DVR, I'm going to sit down with a novel. (I figure I'm only two or three years behind on the NYT best-seller list.) Would I love to know what life was like in the White House for Laura, and for George, the last eight years? Sure. But I would never expect it to come from Laura.
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Our enigmatic current first lady is ready to write a memoir, and has reportedly promised to refrain from revealing anything at all in it; is that supposed to be reverse-psychology PR? According to the AP, Laura Bush has "vowed to write a positive book, with a minimum of criticism.'' So Rachael, would you buy that book? If she called it, I Read, I Smoke, and I Admire, though, I would pay full price. And for What Was I Thinking? I would pre-order.
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