Formspring and A Prayer from the Living World

Doctor Zero at Hot Air blog wrote a passionate post in response to the news of Andrew Koenig's suicide.  After reading his beautiful piece last night, I immediately wanted to share it with the teen blogson, but the whole suicide topic stifled my enthusiasm.  Young Will enjoys a good, thought provoking article as much as I do, so I filed the post, entitled 'A prayer from the living world', for a future occasion.  Little did I know that the occasion would present itself today.  Will was telling me at dinner about a new application that's all the rage among his friends on facebook.  The program is called formspring.  It is easily accessible through a facebook account and allows users to contact friends anonymously and ask them random questions.  The questions and answers are posted for all to see.  The teen blogson was giving me some examples of how people become so bold when they are anonymous.  He seemed concerned, and compelled to share some of the mean comments that had been written on the formspring page of one of his friends.  The conversation naturally evolved into how hurtful teens can be to each other.  Add the element of anonymity into the mix, and there can be real trouble and serious pain.  We talked about coping mechanisms.  I read Doctor Zero's beautiful piece to Will, and in usual form, I couldn't get through it without crying, which always adds an element of comic relief to our togetherness.  The moral of the story:  formspring offers a potentially fun, but dangerous social forum, which will challenge kids' ability to decipher reality.  There is just so much out there to challenge kids' confidence, that communication is critical; even the God-awful discussion of suicide.  Thanks Doctor Zero for the thoughtful assist.