peer communication
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Witaya would make a good rhetorician.
Ethos? His peers were impressionable teens who looked up to him as an elder brother and believed his preaching.
Peer influence has integrated so greatly in our current society - we want an identity and image to associate ourselves with. I am sure everyone at a certain point of time has been exposed to a negative influence or pressure and may or may not have fought it off. So what are you guilty of?
Logos? They were almost convinced that they would resurrect as slayers for the coming World War 3 against "demons".
Pathos? They were all passionate about the idea. Till the last minute.
All checked. That's how the suicide pact was made.
All of them were still undergoing secondary school education, the youngest being 12 and the oldest 17 at that time. At this phase of life, a teen undergoes a tremendous transition, both physically and psychologically. They tend to become more susceptible to the influences and pressures from their peers as compared to that from their parents. Despite educating teens about rejecting negative peer influences, it is still very prevalent in our society.
Why so?
Most teens will very much want to be accepted by their peers as they are going through the awkward phase of puberty and are having insecurities about themselves. Hence, by being integrated into a group or a clique, having shared roles, rules and a common identity will make them feel more socially accepted and also gain recognition among their peers will also in turn, help them to come to terms with who they are. However, they might sometimes get too absorbed into the 'role' allocated to them and thus, fail to discern situations for themselves.
They seemed to be ‘brainwashed’ at that moment, whereby they simply believed in anything Witaya said, instead of truly having experiencing it themselves. The youngest boy, Ben, never knew what slayers meant or what signifies the rituals and meditations carried, he was basically going with the flow - they conform to their groups’ cultures and norms, through the social constructive perspective of things.
Suicide isn’t solely just a clinical problem; the surrounding environment plays a huge part in triggering it as well. Apparently, some time before the pact was made, Witaya’s parents underwent a divorce. He had once mentioned suicide. This mentality could possibly have sparked his beliefs of a battle between ‘demons’, in thinking that they would resurrect as a slayer – it depicts that he was seeking an important role in enforcing justice. Also, Witaya’s grandmother used to be a medium, and molded her beliefs, attitudes and cultures into Witaya’s psychological perspective of matters, who then in turn reached out to his friends through his preaching and extending his help with their troubles.
As much as a child should be guilty for his own misdoings, the negligence of a parent will have to be blamed for as well. Shouldn’t the parents be more sensitive towards the signs that might show their engagement in activities that might affect their results and also, pay more attention to their activities outside of school – to prevent such a tragedy from even having to take on a plan to begin with!
Peer influence has integrated so greatly in our current society - we want an identity and image to associate ourselves with. I am sure everyone at a certain point of time has been exposed to a negative influence or pressure and may or may not have fought it off. So what are you guilty of?
Labels: perspectives, rhetorics, suicide, teens
posted by cheryl at
12:07 PM
23 Comments:
Interesting article. This begs the question: What cause them to derive such bizarre ideas?
To me, I felt it could have been video games, Japanese cartoons, or comics. The idea of a 'slayer' can be eaily found from such sources.
Also, it is curious how his friends so easily subscribed to his bizzare idea. Moreover, it was a suicide idea, making it all the more bizarre why they would participate in his crazy feat. Why would anyone take part in such farfetched (even silly) idea?
perhaps through gaming and reading such comics with characters like 'slayers' Witaya wanted to be special like the characters and he chose to be special by deviating from social norms. because to be special and yet adhere to social norms, it would take a long time to shape such a character but by behaving entirely opposite of what society expects of him will allow him to gain the 'special image' he craved for faster.
also, his parent's divorce might have made him think that he is powerless because he is unable to have a say in a decision that will affect him greatly. so when he actually realised that his friends/followers genuinely listened and believed what he said, it boosted his self worth/esteem- and this would have made him feel powerful and 'special'. like you said, being a teenager, is an awkward stage so Witaya probably liked being powerful and 'special'among his friends and started abusing his 'power' to influence his them and do his bidding
Oh! I read this article in the papers. While I was reading it, I was actuall thinking to myself: How can educated students of these modern times believe such a thing? Then again, we all have different beliefs. I just happen to not subscribe to that belief.
Anyway, I agree with you that peer pressue can play a big role during our adolescense years. Perhaps this could we due to the fact that during this period, we crave for an identity and the need to be accepted. Therefore, we might follow "blindly" what our other peers might be doing, in this case, attempting suicide in order to slay demons.
Also, like you said, there are many psychological and social constructive perpective of things that might affect how we think and thus, our actions thereafter. It is part of our everyday lives but at the end of the day, we should also try to put things in perpective I feel. I personally feel that what they did were extreme and not typical of boys their age.
All in all, an interesting article!
To speak the truth, this is one of the most bizarre news i have ever seen. The thought of a group teenagers agreeing to a sucide pact readily surprises me. I wonder if they had seriously considered the consequences.
Having said that, I realise the power of peer influence in today's society. Teenagers, especially, are very susceptible to this peer influence due to many reasons. For example, they may come from dysfunctional families and they find the sense of belonging when they are with their friends . Hence, they will have trust their friends under any circumstances. In this case, there is little objection raised when the sucide pact was planned.
We often see teenagers commit crimes due to peer pressure. I think that this is a very severe case of teenagers being subjected peer pressure.
rocknstone: Yes that is certainly possible! Video games, especially, have been taking a stronghold on teenagers nowadays. The severity is so drastic to the extent that they keep inside of their room 24/7, the times when they left their rooms was probably to access to the bathroom. They even have their meals infront of the computer screen. In my opinion such an addiction is even worse than taking drugs. It might seem so subtle initially, that no harm is done physically, which poses as a greater danger. So I am not surprised that such ideas regarding slayers and end of the world has stemmed from violent computer games. I think it was being mentioned as well that the notion was from one of the games they play.
And I guess peer pressure plays a huge role in our society currently, by not conforming they will be ostracized from their in-group. So by agreeing to it initially was to earn idiosyncrasy credits, however when it did happened, all of them held their reservations.
Wini: It was probably the cause of his parent's divorce which further instilled such notions in his head. Together with the influence of mangas and computer games, he began to mix what is real and what is not. Then again, he might have already had suicidal thoughts to begin with, and wanting to use this to leave a better impression when he is gone. And yes.. he was a brotherly figure to his peers and hence this has gained their trust within them and they looked up to him. He probably wanted to impact them with such a crazy idea as being matyrs.
Valerie Chua: Initially when I read it, it did seem absurd. It was already ridiculous (no offence) that one has committed it, since he was the leader of the pack. Yet it wasnt only him alone. His friend did it together with him as well. I guess they have to think for themselves sometimes. Is being accepted in a group more important than the cost of their lives?
coms101sq: Nowadays, it is true that we look up and confide in our peers more often than our parents sometimes, since our parents might be condemning and narrow minded at times. Especially at our age, where sensitivity is crucial and that building a rapport with friends is essential as well. I think it is partly the fault of the parent, that they failed to notice the differences in the children's behavior or to monitor their routines or get to know the friends of their children. Should the parent attempt to communicate with them more, their value instilled within their children might be higher. And the boys would think twice about how their parents would have felt should they do commit such an act
I guess the boys have their own set of beliefs. Having the understanding that the virtual life hold greater importance than the real life, which causes their perception of death to be rather disorganized. I guess one of the boy's parents divorced also aggregate their behaviour. Well, in Singapore, I guess there is an increase in teenagers getting too involved in the virtual life that resulted that in an identity crisis. Hopefully the government will make a stand on such mishap.
kandidkester: don't you think however, that their friends were too involved in groupthink to actually THINK about the consequences that will follow, should they end up committing such an irrational act. scary isn't it. How conforming due to groupthink syndromes can end up to such tragedies!
Hi Cheryl!
I think it is just plain tragic that this was even allowed to happen. There could have been so many ways and times it could be stopped but I guess sometimes it is just fated to happen.
I think that this group of boys do display a version of groupthink. At least, up till the point they absorbed the reality of the situation and backed out. They all had a common goal which they were "passionate" about: saving the world by sacrificing themselves. They did not dispute the leader's preachings: no one objected till the last minute. They had a false sense of invincibility: had the illusion that they were "slayers". Maybe if they had appointed a devil's advocate, this tragedy would not have happened?
Another reason why this might have happened is the medium grandmother's influence on Witaya since a young age. She could have easily told him tall tales about Taosim since he was a child and thus shaped his perceptual set in a large way. This would have caused him to have a twarped perception about the world from the beginning and thus, lead the group of boys to commit this travesty.
Sundaytv: hello o-Mandy, I guess everyone looked up to him so much and dare not go against him although it initially did come across to them as a crazy idea. and they were all going with the flow due to the pressure on dissenters, which I thought came across more subtly and low context as they were not "forced" but more like obligations towards him.
His grandmother definitely caused him to tread upon the path of being a medium! Moreover his grandmother was his closest kin since his parents got divorced which upset him a great deal. It might also trigger him to go to such extremities - a cry for attention perhaps!
I guess these students had a great misconception of what religion is and how it should be practiced. Perhaps from the TV dramas we watched, they thought that performing rituals and going in a trance is “fun” and became “obsessed” with it. Furthermore, their parents should also shoulder some blame as they should had spent more time communicating with their son, and perhaps if they notice anything different/weird in his behaviour, this wouldn't have happen.
Breda
I still wonder how did the guy even manage to convince the rest to commit suicide with him? Is his art of persuasion that strong? Or did they do it merely due to groupthink? Perhaps what the guy needed was to see a psychologist due to his bizarre beliefs. Or was he merely doing it to gain some sort of attention from his friends and to be a leader of a pack since he is devoid of it at home? It is still funny how the group of friends were so easily convince about his weird mindset and chose to commit suicide together. If I am not wrong, eventually it was also peer influence by his other friend, who also made the jump, that told the rest of his group to not follow his footstep and take the leap forward.
JunYing
I feel that groupthink is especially evident in this case. The boys probably followed Witaya's suicide plan because of the collectivist nature of their group. They act and think alike, 'brainwashing' one another in the process. Another possibility might be that the rest of the boys assumed Witaya will not go through with the plan which is why they did not persuade him to stop, until one of them voiced out at the last second. This also shows us how we only react to situations when we are severely challenged. The rest of the group agreed with Witaya's suicide plans, but backed out last minute after seeing how much pain they were going through after they took the jump.
I wonder how did Witaya even come up with this idea though. Is he really just warped, and his friends blind sheep?
I agree Witaya would make a good rhetorican!
How he can influence those boys into suicide still baffles me. The boys themselves like you said, must be brainwashed. But I'm glad anyway that most of them did not follow through with the suicide. This just shows how powerful communication can be, but one's motives has to be right.
personally, when I first heard the news I was more angry than puzzled. I mean peer influence is very real, so is the desire to want to be in a group, groupthink, and even beliefs regarding the supernatural. They are all real. no offence but I think that all religious beliefs tap on the same thing as what struck the group of boys here. especially very passionate religious beliefs. and when the belief drives you to do good things, that is considered socially accepted but when it doesn't, they are considered mad. What's scary here is that they really believed in their cause. and I do not think that this is just a one-off event, but becoming part of who they think they are, what they view their purpose in life is. and if you think that this incident should have woken them up from all these deception, you thought wrong. one of the boys is indirectly related to me, and things are not gettin better even after more than a year, in terms of the boy doesn't seem to see how all these brainwashing are crazy and he was led to believe in something untrue. to leave this as anonymously as possible, let's just say that he believes more so than ever.
blacksticks: I feel that he didn't find it fun and instead he treated it as a very serious issue which is why his peers felt compelled to follow everything he say, for they took the words that were passed on to him very seriously. Yes the divorce of his parents definitely impacted his life in negative way, which is why he diverted his attention to all these and got too carried away. Moreover, they were not there to keep him from getting too involved in such issues.
Rachel: Yes communication can be effective especially if you're the leader of the pack, what you say create the most impact and your audiences might disagree with you at times, yet not dare to question you. Which is bad. Without the devil's advocate, this is what happened in Witaya's clique. There wasn't someone to wake up him from his idea - or maybe his peers actually believed in what he says. This brings the whole science and religion into the picture. How can anyone say that it is nonsense or maybe just a figment of Witaya's imagination and make believe. One has to respect one's religion on one hand, regarding mediums and prophesies, on the other hand scientific believes rules incarnation out.
itsmorethanjustwords: At least after one of the boys warned them not to after he took the leap himself. Well. like what I've replied to Rachel, it is a controversy, although we are leaning more to science and factual reports. "How can anyone say that it is nonsense or maybe just a figment of Witaya's imagination and make believe. One has to respect one's religion on one hand, regarding mediums and prophesies, on the other hand scientific believes rules incarnation out."
Yes I also think partially Groupthink is at fault here and thus they all conformed to his idea and not opposed against it. They had their doubts all along yet they did not voice it out. But there was not pressure on dissenters, thus I think they did it out of loyalty to Witaya since he was a really good friend, close to being a sibling towards them.
Definitely, the vye for attention is really obvious here. He steps up as a lead figure, whereby they look up to him for help or whatever problems, which makes him feel that he is significant, since his parents do not give him attention at all. It was mentioned that their divorce had a very significant impact on his life.
Adeline: It might be due to influences such as gaming. We know how such issues are becoming more common nowadays, whereby teenagers get so hooked onto video games that they begin confusing themselves with the reality of things to the games they have played Also, the influence his grandmother has on him since she herself was a medium as well. His parents' negligence has cause his to further degenerate into this state. Frankly, we will never ever know what was going on in his mind. Maybe he already planned to commit suicide for egoistic reasons and he decided to come up with a fancy plot to accompany it. One never knows!
And like what I mentioned to Junying, Groupthink definitely came into play, they all conformed to the stereotype - into thinking that they will reincarnate to become slayers, despite they had some doubts initially, they never brought it up. There wasn't much pressure on dissenters, they probably did it out of loyalty and respect for Witaya, hence they didn't dare question him.
amorausente: Yes, one can't say they're crazy for having such preposterous ideas because it is a very sensitive issue that regards religion and different religions have different believes. Such as the walking on fire might seem insane, but then again it doesn't mean what we abide to is right and sane. End of the day, it's a subjective issue which should be treated with respect. However, when death is regarded, one should always think twice about such a matter. Moreover, at such a young age, whereby they are so susceptible to peer influence and unable to discern for themselves, such matters should be thought through.
But after seeing how they didn't reincarnate as they were told they would be, why is he still holding onto the belief? Is it out of guilt because he didn't jump with the other two and that is why he is atoning and making himself better for continuing with such beliefs?
i read about this in the newpaper.
cant help but think the whole reincarnation story was crafted by wittaya to both justify and glorify his decision for suicide to himself only. he was neither impulsive nor depressive, leading me to believe his entire suicide process must have been planned and methodical...achievable only with some genuine belief that what he was about to do had a greater purpose.
and the rest of cadre believed it too. it just shows how powerful trust is, that when there's enough of it, it can override principles, morals, logic and passion.
it also shows, im unafraid to say, the weak parenting the other boys had received up to that last moment in wittaya's short life, such that it took the primal fear of imminent death with one leg already out the window for that one boy to finally realise the folly and step back and save his own life by running home.
wittaya really was the best parent they ever had. of course, everyone else is going to have differing opinions of what best is.
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