Ryan Papera

Joe Essid

English 103

September 8, 2009

Art or Cruel Prank

            To make a complete judgment about what her true intentions were, much more information needs to be known about ‘Jane’. What was ‘Jane’ trying to achieve out of her deception? Why did she not think it would spread like wildfire? 90-Day Jane was a suicide countdown blog. The final purpose ended up being an art project to see what kind of influence this day and age could play in a suicide threat. She says how in the seventies, Christine Chubbuck killed herself on the air. She wonders if the Internet would have made a difference in her final decision.

            To pose as a suicidal woman intent on killing herself, is deception meant only for fiction. Many people can see the possible form of art in her blog. She was in her own way seeing what types of reactions people would give faced with a person intent on ending her life.

I am going to kill myself in 90 days… This blog is not a cry for help or even to get attention. It's simply a public record of my last 90 days in existence. (Jane)

The introduction to her blog was very straightforward in its deception. She openly states the supposed point of the blog was to count down till her suicide. She told her readers that she did not wish for any sympathy or attempts to help her. She merely wanted ideas on how to do the deed. Before starting the blog, ‘Jane’ must have known that somewhere, someone would believe it and think that she was going to kill herself. How could a decent human being so openly hurt perfect strangers that were just unfortunate enough to care about someone trying to kill herself? Any moral human being coming across this blog would have taken some interest in it.

            ‘Jane’ says how she initially thought that her blog would only reach a small number of people. With a timeline of nearly three months, word was bound to get out. The Internet is known for the uncanny speed of which information spreads. Videos on sites like YouTube are a prime example. In only a few weeks they can have millions of hits. What makes it even worse is that most times the videos with millions of hits are not even remotely interesting. Something like a suicide count down would spark much more attention than just a small number of followers. It only took seven days for news stations to find the story. The post on day 83 was about television stations asking questions or even interviews. By this time she must have realize that her initial “small group of followers” escalated to something much more. When things like the media get involved, stories get blown out of proportion, and distorted. This would ultimately only cause more hype and more people to follow the blog.

            The value of this blog as art is at the discretion of the reader. Someone could read the posts and this it is just a log of depression till the day it culminates in death. “I thought this mirror might reflect the isolation everyday people feel and the lack of true human connection on the Internet” (Jane). From a literary standpoint, she tried to show how the Internet isolates people and removes human contact. She was able to prove how technology, mostly thought of as pure and helpful, can also be detrimental. We live in an age where technology can replace almost all of the usual human contact. Computers and Blackberries have replaced business meetings and human social contact. At any point in time, people have a cell phone, laptop, desktop, or even more, to be ‘social’. These forms of communication are anything but social. ‘Jane’ made an entry about how she was asked out on a valentines date by email. It was even worse because the guy worked in the same office as her and did not bother to ask her in person. This lack of human contact can lead people to do very depressing things. When the social contact is lost, a part of what makes human being human is lost.

            90-Day Jane was a work of art to ‘Jane’, and a cruel joke to others. A true judgment cannot be made without more answers. This usage of blogs, to test a theory of deception, had to have some other motive. A blog is not meant to be a countdown to suicide/ art project. Only a few days into the ‘art project’ ‘Jane’ should have realized that the small group of people was no longer very small. Finally art is all perspective. What one person thinks is art, another may think is only a sick joke. The scariest part of this whole blog was how real it could have been. People feel so isolated because of the Internet that it may lead them to do such rash things as ‘Jane’. 90-Day Jane could be looked at in many different lights, but not enough true information exists to pass a verdict.

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