Demi Moore's Twitter followers help stop a suicide
Twitter is frivolous. Witness Ashton Kutcher, who tweeted a photo of his wife's bottom just the other day.
However, that wife, Demi Moore, shifted her bottom Friday when perhaps another star might have turned the other cheek, in an act that showed Twitter has its serious uses too.
On her own Twitter feed, Ms. Moore received a message from sandieguy, an apparently unemployed woman from the Silicon Valley area: "Getting a knife, a big one that is sharp. Going to cut my arm down the whole arm so it doesn't waste time."
As if this wasn't disturbing enough, she received another message just seconds later: "gbye ... gonna kill myself now."
One suspects that many stars might have ignored these messages as just the ramblings of the sad. Instead, Ms. Moore reposted the message onto her Twitter page and wrote: "hope you are joking."
It was then that some of her 388,000 followers sprung into action. They kept calling the San Jose, Calif., police to explain the situation. The police then located the woman and took her into custody for "evaluation."
(Credit:
CC Cliff 1066/Flicker)
Ms. Moore then tweeted: "It is my understanding that the situation was not a joke and that through the collective efforts here, action was taken to provide help!"
The strange thing about Twitter is that it seems to play a far more significant and effective role in the toughest of situations. You can see Demi Moore's bottom in many places. You can't always help save a life.
So perhaps it is not entirely surprising that Ms. Moore went to bed early Friday with the tweet: "Good Night Twitterers--this day has been an extraordinary. I am taking pause to reflect on all the blessings I have in my life Thank you!!"
There is much talk of how Twitter is helping stars control their own PR, rather than allow it to be dictated by the exigencies of the entertainment conglomerate mass.
But how sad would it be if, after this incident, those in need of attention (for one reason or another) began to reach out to their favorite stars for salvation on the microblogging service?
Late Friday, a tweet was left by, or on behalf of, sandieguy. It read: "Thinking that it's absolutely amazing that complete strangers love her. Bless you all and thanks, you don't know what it means."
If she had left the message on a complete stranger's Twitter page (if you read her Twitter feed, she had previously sent many messages both to Ms. Moore and Mr. Kutcher), might it be possible that sandieguy would now be dead?
How many potential suicides, kooks, attention seekers, or just plain narcissists will now emerge from their darkness to try and bathe in a little twittering limelight? And how will anyone ever be able to know which ones really need help?
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
"How many potential suicides, kooks, attention seekers, or just plain narcissists will now emerge from their darkness to try and bathe in a little twittering limelight? And how will anyone ever be able to know which ones really need help?"
Does it matter how many twits seek help? Even if there are 1,000 fake twitters for only 1 genuine call for help, isn't it worth that one human life? Maybe if I had found someone who cared I wouldn't have a huge scar down my forearm, and nearly lost my life in the process. But in my experience no one cares until you're lying in the ER overdosed, arms bleeding and on life support. Then they care because the law says they must. But once the legal holding period was over, I was discharged back onto the streets (homeless at the time), in my wheelchair (quadriplegic), in only a hospital gown, with the weather near zero degrees outside. They wouldn't let me kill myself, but they didn't care if I froze to death.
So I find your insensitive remark very insulting to those who are truly in need of help, who reach out however they can. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. There is help available, and I thank God that there are Angels on Earth, like Demi Moore who care enough about a complete stranger to respond to this persons' cry for help. Gives me hope that there is at least one person out there that cares.
I'm sorry if you found the remark insensitive. My point was one about the potential of the sheer volume of people who might suddenly be seeking help via Twitter, with no one being able to know whether their appeals are genuine. (Because some simply won't be)
But I totally agree that the mere thought that SOMEONE is prepared to help is a hopeful one.
Thank you for commenting.
Chris