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by enrihrts

Enrique turns a critical eye to web video trends.

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Suicide Video Craze

December 07, 2008

Categories: Modern Film Trends Web Video Trends

Tags: blog craze enrique huertas suicide video

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Searching the Internet on a daily basis for high quality short films & videos can be an arduous & strange task at times. Let’s face it: there’s a lot of crap out there. On average, you have to watch about 50 bad videos in order to find just one good one. From tutorials on how to make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich to a man giving his dog a haircut, there are no shortages of completely pointless, unwatchable videos populating the Internet today.

During my video searches I’ve come across various trends, some brilliant & some silly. People tend to emulate things they like such as subject matter and filming technique. Lately, I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend that I refer to as the “Suicide Video Craze”. I’ve already seen hundreds and I am sure there are thousands of online videos that depict suicides. The videos are typically very short and have very little plot.

Some are funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sg7YpIBTTg&feature=related

Some are sad and realistic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsGx3GpasYg

But most look like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=l2UW0YV8q4A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dGdz5JrCcU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGyeI-3lL2I&feature=related

Just a person, mostly teenagers, standing in front of a camera and shooting themselves, jumping out of windows, cutting their wrist, etc.

So what is the fascination with depicting your own suicide and then uploading it for the world to see? Maybe these kids just need to get a life, or perhaps this trend is just a new form of venting about teenage angst, like writing poetry, making music or painting. The first answer that comes to mind is that these videos might be an obvious cry for help and/or attention. Thinking about suicide is one thing, but acting it out and wanting others to see it is taking it to another level. Regardless of the real world implications of this trend, the online “Suicide Video Craze” seems to grow larger every day.

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