jus read an article abt this girl known online as Nevada-tan. she is a 11 yrs old girl(in 2004) from japan studying in a normal japanese elementary school. sounds typical eh. well, she's not...... on the 1st of june 2004. she slashed one of her 12 yrs old classmate to death with a pen knife during lunch break in school. damn horrible man. what could have provoked a innocent 11 yr old to do something that even a grown man would shudder to do?? the reason; the 12 yrs old classmate talked abt Nevada being fat on Nevada's website. thats like too extreme lar, to kill a classmate over a comment abt you being fat. its worrying becos of 2 things. firstly, she is only 11 and is already so concerned abt appearances and stuff, what would she grow up to be sia?? and to actually take the internet comment so seriously, isnt it too extreme? secondly, Nevada is suffering from Hikikomori (situation where the person becomes extremely isolated from outside world) but her parents nv did find out abt it until the murder.

what i wan to say is, doesnt this say something very wrong with the society today?? kids getting obsessed with their looks and parents not noticing wad is wrong with their kids. wad is it that causes these problems?? urbanization? lets jus have a look at kids today and kids from my generation. in my days, we play with see-saw, lego; toys made from plastic, we would definitely not get what we asked for (not on the first request anyway) and we are forever carefree, no pressure at all. we grew up the way kids are supposed to grow up. kids today, they play with computer games, rarely go outdoors, get what they wan whenever they wan. they also have to deal with pressure; excelling in studies and cca, comparisons with frens abt who has the best toy/gadget, parents subjecting them to comparisons with cousins. maybe its because of these things that could have caused the problems. the kids getting more and more self-centered with bigger egos. to them, pride is everything and letting go is nv an option. parents too, they spend most of their time at work and doesnt spend enuff time with their kids(they have to work in order to survive). as a way of compensation they give the kids what they wan without questioning which builds up their ego even more. as we all know, once a person's ego is bruised, they can and will do anything. even kids.

im not saying that urbanization is a bad thing, but wouldnt it be great if kids can retain the same innocence, have the same kind of childhood that we used to enjoy (i doubt any of the babies born after 1993 has even seen live chickens) while the world continues to move forward. i read an article quite awhile ago, it talked abt this picture comparing the smile of kids today and in the past. in a nutshell, kids in the past had a brighter and much more radiant smile compared to the smile of kids today. surely this says something. the pressure that parents are putting on kids are enormous too. 5 yrs old and already sent for tuition classes, piano lessons, english enrichment, etc. so young and already has to deal with so much, i wouldnt be surprised if more similar cases to Nevada's turn up. already crime rate among kids (5-11yrs old) are on the rise.