Poor lady. Poor baby.

:(

what's the point of shaking? does that even help stop crying? doubt it

plus a 3 month old? aw man you can barely expect them to sit up properly nevermind taking that

....I think there is another thing involved in this story sending in eth.

I have gotten so many invitations to Farm Wars, or whatever, and I just have not seen the point. I waste enough time here and on MeFi. . .I would hate to have to waste less time with you guys in order to waste more on Facebook.

I skimmed this sort of game conference presentation or something the other day cause of course now every web app developer thinks they need to 'gamify' their experience so that stuff is flooding our field but anyway this person was talking about how there's a type of game WoW, FarmVille etc that just saps you into it like a .. what's it called.. sisyphean task and that it can help to have another philosophy of successful game design that's less treadmill-like. Kinda interesting. In a way if people are addicted to your game you've won at game designing but have you really?

I've been pretty successful in blocking all applications on Facebook, I haven't seen any updates or invites from one in at least six months.

I haven't blocked 'em but actually they made major changes this year where the invitations etc are neatly packed away to such extent that you can ignore them forever

What facebook has done in the meanwhile though is forsake their actual app developer community for these wack games & marketing tools attached to the pages feature.. they tend to change everything so wildly for everyone from their end users (privacy) to their developer platform users it's crazy

I kind of doubt that Farmville was the main issue here, really.

Heh.

what's the point of shaking? does that even help stop crying?

I've wondered this myself. I try to picture how people shake their babies, because it seems to happen fairly regularly- are you holding the baby upright and shaking it forwards and backwards? Left to right? Do you turn it upside down? Or is it different for each person?

This post made to think to look for updates on Baby Kaleb.

Maybe because you kind of rock or jiggle a baby to try to soothe it, if you're half out of your mind with insomnia and stress and isolation and the baby's been crying forever and won't stop crying it's pretty easy for that to escalate into a rougher shaking that you had no idea could do that much harm...

I agree with occhiblu, I don't think Facebook and Farmville are the issues here, they're just an easy peg for the media to use.

Theophile that makes sense. I was genuinely mystified about how you pick up a 3 month old and shake it but you're right the rocking vs shaking mechanics aren't that different

That'll be hard, hard time she'll serve.

I agree with occhiblu here too.

what's the point of shaking? does that even help stop crying?

It's not that hard to understand if you have ever been around an inconsolable infant. I think it's especially easy to understand when the only person dealing with the inconsolable infant is a young, sleep-deprived, somewhat-still-in-shock and isolated parent. When you try to soothe a baby, typically you go through everything, a whole sequenced routine of backrubbing, picking up, stroking, jiggling, turning over, belly rubbing, knee-jogging, hugging, patting, more jiggling. The hot, convulsed, sweaty little baby unleashing one sharp piercing yowl after another directly into your year no matter what you do. I suspect almost all incidents of baby shaking come from an escalation of this kind of attempt at soothing gone awry through the extremity of frustration a parent experiences.

I closed my Facebook account and I can't say I've missed FB a bit.

While I'm not condoning her behaviour in any way, I think any parent who has had a child that doesn't sleep well can see how things could get to this point. It's hard to understand how soul-destroying it is to be continually sleep-deprived and to be unable to calm down a crying baby unless you've lived through it.

This is nothing to do with Facebook, as others have said. Facebook just happened to be the thing that she was trying to do at the time and it could just as easily have been any other activity. It doesn't take much shaking to do harm to an infant - they are so incredibly fragile.

She will do hard time, indeed and the worst is that she will continue to do that time no matter where she is - I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel to know that you have killed your own child and what sort of hell such a person has to endure in their own head. I can't imagine how you could ever get over that.

Do you think we're maybe reaching carrying capacity for the world and that's why folks seem a bit more violent, a bit less nurturing, a bit more inclined to desperation... the economy certainly can't help in tendering folks feelings, but I can't help but think people are just getting worse when I'm the only person to say 'excuse me,' or to get up for the elderly and pregnant? The other day I got pushed for no reason other than being in someone's way on the subway. We're in need of a predator to cull the herd so to speak as Darwin's law doesn't seem as applicable? This is kind of a horrible, morbid thought and I'm sorry about it.

I used to prosecute people for shaking babies, and that was over a decade ago. It is a long standing problem . . . babies cry, people get angry and frustrated they won't stop, they shake the baby, the crying stops. People still don't realize how much brain damage that causes.

I think people are actually still very caring, but the bad behavior sticks out and is more memorable

I can't help but think people are just getting worse when I'm the only person to say 'excuse me,' or to get up for the elderly and pregnant? The other day I got pushed for no reason other than being in someone's way on the subway.

On my way home on Tuesday I got off at my station, and it was fairly busy, around 5pm, the start of the rush hour with the early commuters from central London travelling east. A blind man got off the train, he had a stick, and he was struggling to find the steps. He was saying, over and over, "can somebody help me, please? I don't know where I am."

People just pushed past him, I heard one man say "Oh for fuck's sake" as he elbowed him out of the way. It was obvious the man was blind. WTF? I was the only person who helped him, out of maybe 50 people who got off that train (there were no staff on the station, as usual). The man had missed his station. I had to lead him to the men's toilets, wait for him, take him over the platform and make sure he got on the westbound train. On the westbound platform was a young woman, and I asked if she was going past his station. She was, so I asked if she could make sure he got off at the right stop. It delayed me by, what, five, ten minutes.

But, I mean, what the fuckity fuck? I live in a middle-class neighbourhood of well-educated, professional people. And I was the only person who offered this man any help. Jeez.

damn Senyar that's bad

Just to play devil's advocate, Senyar, I noticed you said on Facebook that the man tried to feel you up? Don't you think stuff like that is the reason people might not want to help others, because they sometimes have to deal with negative experiences like that?

No, I'm giving the guy the benefit of the doubt, after all, he was blind, I don't think he was trying to be sleazy.