Can you deal?

So.  I’m sure that any of you on facebook have seen issue with the recent rash of suicides by teens that are gay and bullied.  It has gone pretty viral with some big name celebrities speaking out, bloggers speaking out, etc. 

And as a Mom I look at my three children and I pray that if they are ever in that situation that they would come to me, they would go to someone, and get help.  Because it does get better but I was a teen once too and I remember how absolute life felt, how big my emotions were. 

And then I signed in to facebook today and this was one of my “friend’s” status:

Suicide because of BULLYING? Who does that?!.....what is wrong with this generation of kids that they cannot DEAL?!

They cannot deal?  Well, what do they have to deal with? 

I think the viral nature of how youth communicates now is like nothing we experienced in school.  I had a pager, I was soooooo cool.  There was no facebook, there was no myspace, no one went out and made their own website, having an email address was a big deal at that point in the game.  Forget cell phones and text messaging, it just didn’t happen folks. 

Not anymore, if I need to talk to one of my clients who happens to be a high school senior, I text them.  I also text my husband, my mom, my dad, my friends, my clients, stores to get discounts…  information is instantaneous and easily shared with anyone. 

When I was in high school if I was bullied it was by one or two people and I saw there face, knew their name, had to sit next to them in English and pass them in the halls. 

Now anyone can put anything online.  Who  you are, who you are not, it is all fair game.  And here’s the kicker, anyone can see that information that you OR someone else posts about you and they can comment on it.  With complete anonymity.  And what they say may be the truth, it may be an utter lie.  No one is policing it, no one is preventing it from happening. 

So yeah, I get it.  Some teens cannot deal.  Because growing up is hard.  Growing up gay can only be harder.  An you know what, my heart positively breaks for how alone and degraded some of those children must feel, at a time when they’re already so confused.