Simone Back Announces Suicide On Facebook--And None Of Her Friends Help

UPDATE: A Facebook spokesperson has contacted HuffPostTech with the following statement regarding Simone Back's suicide:

We were deeply saddened to hear of the recent suicide of Simone Back. We have a close working relationship with the Samaritans and have a process in place whereby friends and family who are concerned about someone can report it to us through the Help Centre. A team of trained professionals are then able to review the case and the Samaritans will make contact with the person at risk. The safety of people who use Facebook is of paramount importance to us and this system is just one of number of tools we have in place to help them stay safe.

The spokesperson noted that Facebook's Help Center is located at www.facebook.com/help
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Forty-two year-old Simone Back announced her intention to commit suicide in a status update on Facebook--and not one of her over 1,000 Facebook friends reached out in person to help.

According to the Daily Mail, Back, who committed suicide on Christmas Day, wrote in her Facebook status, "Took all my pills be dead soon bye bye everyone."

What followed was a series of callous posts from some of Back's Facebook friends. The Telegraph writes, "Some of the Facebook friends posted messages calling her a liar and one said it was 'her choice'. Seventeen hours later, police broke down the door of her flat in Montague Street, Brighton, and found her dead."

Back's mother told the Daily Mail that none of her daughter's online friends attempted to help her in person. The Daily Mail explains,

While some Facebook friends from out of town begged online for her address and telephone number so they could get help, none of those who lived closer did anything to help.
Miss Back's friend, Samantha Pia Owen, said: "Everyone just carried on arguing with each other on Facebook like it wasn't happening. Some of those people lived within walking distance of Simone."

Back's case is not the first in which someone has announced their intention to commit suicide via Facebook. In 2010, Rutgers University was shocked by the death of student Tyler Clementi, who posted a status update on Facebook that read "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry" shortly before his body was found in the Hudson River.

Comments

[Carl Jacobson]

06:52 PM on 01/09/2011

Facebook friends are not true deep meaningful friendships - they are more along the lines of signing a yearbook or a pen-pal type thing. That's not to say that it would not be the start of a deeper interaction between people - because in many cases it does. But to compare a interpersonal relationship with an online message board type communication is not accurate.
Truthfully - I hate to say it - I would also probably not react to this type of warning. There are no physical cues that one can read to deduce that this is a serious situation. I'd look at it as a cry for attention- which it is - but I tend to take things I read online less seriously. Sad but true....

[topachic25]

03:09 PM on 01/09/2011

For some, facebook is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends. Especially when they are scattered all over the country and the world. For many others, unfortunately they have closed themselves off to the outside world and surrounded themselves with their "friends". They display to the outside world what they want others to see and know about them. They live in a self made world surrounded by their farms, sorority sister, poker buddies, and all their "likes". Then there are those people who need attention and air all their drama to drum up attention and support. It is disheartening that as a society we are so physically segregated from one another and close off our true selves from each other. We don't even take true pictures of ourselves anymore for fear that people will judge us. Each time we hear a story like this, everyone says it should be a wake up call. I hope someone reading this article will choose to shut off the PC, and call a friend who you know is down. Visit them, hug there neck, call them, send them a hand written card, be a true "friend".

[vmethod]

03:03 PM on 01/09/2011

I hope her so called "friends" live a life of regret and guilt. I can understand not noticing an update (I'm not saying they read it and didn't notice, I'm talking about having so many updates you never see it), but to SEE it and NOT do anything?

My God what is wrong with people? Honestly, it would only cost about $5 and about 10 minutes of time to get that woman's address or phone number off of people search engines like Intellius.com or similar. Suicide isn't a joke, and with all the depressing circulating these days, myself included, you can't just stand there gawking. DO SOMETHING.

Hell, call the police and give all the info, maybe they can track her down!

[PCFerret]

01:41 PM on 01/09/2011

This is just too sad....

[Susan Osterhout Troiano]

11:05 AM on 01/09/2011

My deepest sympathy to the family; may the angels be with you during this difficult time.

[wilray]

11:24 PM on 01/08/2011

From what I am reading, I think a lot of people are having difficulty processing how they should respond given this situation. Since there isn't an instruction book, I will give my suggestions. First, do not leave snarky comments. There were people who seemed too busy or couldn't be bothered, yet they bothered to leave snarky comments. If I saw any of those people in my friends list, I would drop them immediately. Who needs friends like that.

Assuming you want to help, do this. Call the emergency response number. In the United States, that's 911. Since Facebook does show the community the person lives in, It would probably best to call there. However, I think it would be okay to call your local emergency response and explain the situation.

Some people expressed a desire not to get in trouble, if were a prank or a hoax. I doubt that you will get into trouble. Tell emergency response that you saw it at Facebook. Once you call them, it is their job to handle it, and they have resources that you don't Trust me this will not be viewed the same as calling 911 because McDonald's screwed up your McNuggets order.

[Skepticof]

09:30 PM on 01/08/2011

It's erroneous to assume one's posting on Facebook will be read by someone. Unless you send it as a message to a recipient, it's likely to be buried in the pile with most of other posts. You can experiment that by posting a note giving away $1 each to the first 5 respondents, and find no taker.

[beachgirl61]

07:54 PM on 01/08/2011

What is it with people who want to turn facebook into some moral panic? Most people who use facebook are normal people who have online friends wo are also realtime friends and even family members. Those who slam people on facebook are being self righteous laggards.

[O K Ali]

05:57 PM on 01/08/2011

Everybody on Facebook that is considered a friend, I actually know, through school or work.

[RDHawke]

04:26 PM on 01/08/2011

My son and I had a friend who did give a lot of hints of suicide on his Facebook page.
I wasn't one of his F/B "friends" and my son doesn't 'do' F/B at all. Other friends saw this trend of his but did nothing; I think most people don't believe the person. No one even mentioned this to my son. And I didn't know how very depressed he really was. He didn't confide in me. I learned years ago that when someone talks about suicide, even tangentially, they should be taken seriously. Rob's death was a drinking/drug overdose, an accidentally on purpose, kind of thing. We were devastated. He had stayed with us for a few days only a couple of weeks before he died. He didn't give us a clue at that time; he was 3 months from his 39th birthday and left a 2 year old son behind.

[writersbloc]

03:33 PM on 01/08/2011

I agree w the language degrading. Reading this Huff Post headline again, it is not true that no one did anything. The people who were closest in proximity didn't seem to do anything. Others took it seriously (the adults in the room), and tried to do something.

To be fair, people don't exactly distinguish between friends and acquaintances outside of Facebook.

[Js420]

03:34 PM on 01/08/2011

agreed. Facebook sucks

[redglitter]

12:49 PM on 01/08/2011

This tragic incident is new to me and the jaded, even arrogant remarks sprinkled among the ones of common sense are angering me greatly. What's the first rule of suicide? Take the person seriously. Regardless of any penchant they have for drama or doubts you may have- err on the side of caution.If those 1000 "friends" were on her list, they each had some responsibility to her that they did not own up to. It doesn't matter that this is cyber world, real people are still playing in it. This attitude only exemplifies how bogus these "friendships" are. At one point I had roughly a handful more than one hundred "friends" on Facebook. I'm not even a popular person, being as I am so opinionated, so figure that out.Over time I got tired of hosting my personal life for the benefit of people who couldn't be bothered to speak to me, yet still wanted on that Friend List, and I deleted handfuls of them. Callous? Yes but deserved. I recently cleaned house again for the same reason. I found it gratifying, knowing that none but maybe a handful or two of these people made effort to acknowledge me or to make any attempt at being friendly, even when I made the effort for them so why keep them around? (cont)

[headly66]

12:39 PM on 01/08/2011

First of all FB friends are almost always not really your friends, they are just people who accepted your invite.

[headly66]

12:38 PM on 01/08/2011

First it says - And none of her friends help
Then - Facebook friends from out of town begged online for her address and telephone number so they could get help

Which is it?

[airmikee99]

07:30 PM on 01/08/2011

You answered your own question. People did try to help, but trying to help isn't the same thing as actually helping.

[kellymar]

08:05 PM on 01/08/2011

The way I read it, ONLY the friends from out of town tried to help. The friends who lived nearby did nothing. I agree with other comments about the connotation of the word "friend."

[HeartlandLiberal]

11:11 AM on 01/08/2011

With "Friends" like Facebook Friends, who needs enemies?

Friends. You keep saying that word, but I am not sure you know what it means.