It's not a happy story, in matter of fact, it's tragic, but this sort of thing is becoming a common sight on social networking sites and it needs to stop.
There was a girl, going by the username @System_Sniper, who enjoyed music. A lot. Bands like My Chemical Romance, You me at six, Ramones, Nirvana and 30 seconds to Mars were her life.
She enjoyed talking to her followers on twitter about these bands, and she had quite a following of dedicated followers that loved her deeply.
Some passing remark from this girl caused a full on attack by another, who was a fan of Teen pop sensation, Justin Bieber.
And this is where the story begins to get upsetting...
For some unknown reason, @System_Sniper was feeling down. This Belieber was aware of this but still, she continued to harass her, telling her aweful things like she should kill herself.
The tiniest little idea spreads like a virus to cause so much needless destruction...
She tweeted:
"I don't even know what to say anymore. I guess a lot of people think I'm useless. @Its_Meg_Bieber 's probably right. Maybe I should die."Followed by:
"Thanks to you, I'm holding a sh*tload of pills and as I sleep tonight, I might not wake up again, Thanks for making me realize that my life's just a joke and that nobody will ever believe in me. I can't believe I'm saying this, But you win, I hope you'll shut up. They don't deserve all this sh*t from you just because they tried to defend me. Bye."
She overdosed because of the abuse that this Belieber sent her.
The "Happy ending" of this story? She's alive.
Call it a miracle, or an act of God, or pure chance... call it whatever you want but please realise just how lucky this girl is to be lying in a Hospital bed this morning. And please, realise how easy it is for vulnerable people just like her to be persuaded that they are not pretty enough, or not good enough, or that they shouldn't even be alive. It's not right.
If you have twitter, you'll have probably seen the #SingItForSniper Trending topic. Well, I'm here to tell you that it's the MCRmy AND the Beliebers that made that trend.
Yes. The fans from these two, completely different artists put aside their differences and formed an alliance to show their support for @System_Sniper at this very difficult time and to raise awareness of the destruction that cyber bullying can cause.
You very rarely hear about people who have committed suicide after this type of abuse, but it's so common it hurts. You may only be "joking" with someone about being gay, or an emo, or that they look ugly and should kill themselves, but online, it's near enough impossible to tell whether someone is joking or being deadly serious. And sometimes, one hurtful comment is just enough to push someone over the edge...
Don't support cyber bullying. If you see someone getting abusive comments or tweets, stick up for them, tell them to block the bully or report them to the site's administrators. Don't just sit there and let the abuse continue...
One last thing:
Think before you tweet. You never know what it'll cause someone to do.
