TORONTO, Canada – A woman who accidentally e-mailed a photo of actor Nicolas Cage instead of her résumé when applying for a job has committed suicide in the wake of her gaffe. “We’ve been told by her family that the mistake itself was no so bad,” said a Toronto police officer who asked not to be identified. “In fact, she laughed when she found out about it, and was planning to simply follow up by e-mailing her actual résumé.
“She soon learned, however, that her initial e-mail had already been sent all over the world through social media under the popular categorization of ‘fail.’ She was so deluged with derogatory remarks and insults from strangers across the globe that apparently she caved under the pressure and took her own life. It’s a terrible tragedy over so innocent a mistake.
“But I mean, what an idiot! Total fail!”
In recent years sociologists and psychologists have been noting the effects of broadcasting every minor mistake people make over the Internet. “It’s incredibly damaging,” said Jane Stuart, a psychologist who has begun to specialize in this emerging phenomenon. “Every time you sneeze and a booger comes out of your nose, someone is there with a camera-phone to take a picture and post it to the Web. What could have been passed over in a few moments is posted and shared through social media for all to see. It magnifies and extends the ridicule a person receives to the point that it is simply beyond endurance for many people. They become withdrawn from society, can develop any number of neuroses, and, in extreme cases like the woman in Toronto, will even kill themselves.
“Still, I shared her story on my Facebook page. Epic fail!”
