I am very sorry. Now I understand, well, I can only imagine having everyone around you find out and leaving you. Again, I'm sorry. That certainly is more than reason to hate CNN. It didn't occur to me that using your name would obviously cause relationships to fall apart and such. I failed to connect the two.

Looking back, it is a real shame. I feel terrible now. Using your name was a mistake. Although you and others here would probably argue, I don't think that was the intention of CNN - to ruin your reputation. I think the intention of the article was to inform, provide insight to those who were about to bash it, and ultimately give help to anyone who was experiencing PAD. That was just a really bad call using your name. Real names and specific information is a big no-no in news. They should have asked to use your real name, or just by default use only your user name or a made up name.

Again, I'm sorry. I keep my forum life to myself for that reason. Nobody knows I think and discuss Avatar everyday. It would be really hard if everyone around me suddenly knew. I just hope that the 30% remaining friends are the good ones, the closest friends. You're going to college this year? Next year? Either way I hope you meet a lot of great people who wouldn't judge you from something like this. You don't deserve anymore break ups, only good people. God I'm sorry man.

You are right. Their INTENTION was not to ruin my reputation. They simply did not care if it happened or not.

Posting this kind of information leads to more viewers, which leads to more money for them. Simple as that. And for that, I have lost all my respect for CNN.

And it was only the start. Soon the news spread to other news stations, newspapers, magazines, forum boards and news websites. Eventually Sweden's largest newspaper caught up on the story and... you can imagine the outcome.

Actually the BBC wanted to use me in their article about PAD. But this was after the CNN article so I turned down.

I was asked for somewhere too... but I said only if they didn't use my name. Never heard back from them lol

What CNN did was really inexcusable.

I really did not interpret a single word of understanding there. It's 'hey look, these people are different', the same as far too much in life :(

I think that's because of your perspective. You have a perspective of being a member of such forums, and being one who experienced PAD first hand. You're going to look at it and think "hey they're bashing us because we're different". They are certainly not bashing us. They are trying to understand us despite what the average viewer of this article thinks.

Now, what they did with Eltu was a big mistake. They shouldn't be using real names on something that would cause such repercussions. Regardless....

The article doesn't bash you or anyone here for being different. No, instead it tries understanding why you would feel depressed, and what you could do about it. That's why they had a therapist comment on it, and why they talked about building these online communities.

"The bright side is that for Hill and others like him....becoming a part of a community of like-minded people on an online forum has helped them emerge from the darkness."

Sure, it may seem like CNN is just saying "hey these people are different", but it definitely also serves as a portal to these communities. Seriously, I bet half the people on these forums joined after seeing the article. I know I did, and without it, God, who knows where I'd be. This article saved my life from a complete emotional meltdown.

Don't forget that that Croatian news site misinterpreted the CNN's article (Croatians don't know english that well) and announced that Eltu committed suicide... :P

*thinks of Stan from South Park*

- What?


And yeah, it happened. SEVERAL croatian magazines (guess the news spread between them) wrote:

"After watching Avatar, 17-year old swedish Ivar Hill decided to commit suicide."

Apparently, they talked about the "incident" in CROATIAN SCHOOLS.

Wow... lol ^_^

OK, that's really weird...

Um...holy ****.

Oh, and I've given up on CNN, too (and pretty much all mainstream media). If it wasn't the PAD debacle that did it, it was Lou Dobbs going off the deep end. Though Anderson Cooper is pretty good; the last true reporter IMO.

Yeah... one of them later posted an apology, but AFAIK the others haven't even acknowledged their mistake.

Nope, they haven't. There are still magazines out there that announce I am dead, along with my real name, age, and location.

Ok this is something you just have to show me, because I am all eyes now.

As you want...

Here's one:
Film Avatar poti

"So after a look at 'Avatar', the seventeen year old Swede Ivar Hill decided to commit suicide."
(Google Translate)




Here's another:
Vecernji.hr - ‘Ne mogu više biti na Zemlji.

"After viewing the film "avatar", 17-year-old Swede Ivar Hill decided on suicide."
(Google Translate)



I spoke to Thorinair (he's croatian) - and he can confirm that the translator is correct.