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I knew before I clicked this would be Madison. I didn't know her but I went to Penn and was a student there when she died. It shook the whole school, and then

by habosa 8y ago

I knew before I clicked this would be Madison. I didn't know her but I went to Penn and was a student there when she died. It shook the whole school, and then a wave of other student suicides followed. I'm sure all of these other students had happy pictures on their Facebook too, but for whatever reason Madison's story was the one that went national and still seems to echo back. Nothing to say that hasn't been said ... it's beyond tragic and nobody will ever be able to explain it. I do think the focus on social media here is misguided or at least not productive. Penn and other colleges need more readily available mental health services and programs to reduce the stigma around accessing them. From what I hear, not much has changed on that front.

Celexior 8y ago
I think her story is out a lot because for a lot of people it seems easy to understand. She was at a new school who was hard, and due to the pressure she killed herself. I think the story is way more dense than that, plus the fact that you never know what is really going on inside people head. But the simplification of the story, the rather attractive girl, the perfect life that she was posting on social network, the big and famous university are some of the factors that might explains why she is more publicized than other. But every fight need a face, and today she is the face.
danso 8y ago
Same here, when I saw the `(2015)` in the title. I didn't remember the exact year of Holleran's story, just that when ESPN published it, it was very notable and alarming. People were cynical about social media back then, but they weren't as outright hostile, in the way that it's common to be so today. Just as you said for yourself, her story spoke more to me as a story about how severe depression can hide in plain sight, in any era, but also in an age where constant checkins and engagement is almost mandated by social media. I didn't get the impression at all that the tragedy was exacerbated by social media, other than possibly misleading her loved ones to think she was happier than she was.
DoreenMichele 8y ago
Penn and other colleges need more readily available mental health services Unfortunately, that's actually kind of a bandaid approach. It's a little like saying "We don't really need to make the factory safer so fewer people get hurt. We just need another doctor in our on-site clinic and it should be a free visit if the injury occurred on the job." You go to a mental health professional because something is wrong. Often, that something wrong is social/environmental. This trope that depressed people just need better access to mental health professionals is a left-handed way of blaming those individuals and suggesting they are simply randomly defective and washing our hands of trying to make a better world. In most cases, they are more rightly viewed as "the presenting problem" -- the signifier of something systemic gone wrong. Family counselors are routinely presented with a situation where, for example, a teenager is acting out and being labeled as The Problem. They never accept that as the actual truth. They know that they need to deal with the family dynamic. Simply blaming the teen as the easy out will not go good places.

by habosa 8y ago

Celexior 8y ago

I think her story is out a lot because for a lot of people it seems easy to understand. She was at a new school who was hard, and due to the pressure she killed herself. I think the story is way more dense than that, plus the fact that you never know what is really going on inside people head. But the simplification of the story, the rather attractive girl, the perfect life that she was posting on social network, the big and famous university are some of the factors that might explains why she is more publicized than other. But every fight need a face, and today she is the face.

danso 8y ago

Same here, when I saw the `(2015)` in the title. I didn't remember the exact year of Holleran's story, just that when ESPN published it, it was very notable and alarming. People were cynical about social media back then, but they weren't as outright hostile, in the way that it's common to be so today. Just as you said for yourself, her story spoke more to me as a story about how severe depression can hide in plain sight, in any era, but also in an age where constant checkins and engagement is almost mandated by social media. I didn't get the impression at all that the tragedy was exacerbated by social media, other than possibly misleading her loved ones to think she was happier than she was.

DoreenMichele 8y ago

Penn and other colleges need more readily available mental health services Unfortunately, that's actually kind of a bandaid approach. It's a little like saying "We don't really need to make the factory safer so fewer people get hurt. We just need another doctor in our on-site clinic and it should be a free visit if the injury occurred on the job." You go to a mental health professional because something is wrong. Often, that something wrong is social/environmental. This trope that depressed people just need better access to mental health professionals is a left-handed way of blaming those individuals and suggesting they are simply randomly defective and washing our hands of trying to make a better world. In most cases, they are more rightly viewed as "the presenting problem" -- the signifier of something systemic gone wrong. Family counselors are routinely presented with a situation where, for example, a teenager is acting out and being labeled as The Problem. They never accept that as the actual truth. They know that they need to deal with the family dynamic. Simply blaming the teen as the easy out will not go good places.