Neopaths: What They Are And What Are Their Characteristic Behaviors
Although the Internet is nothing new today, its power never ceases to amaze us. Many people make correct use of this tool, which at the end of the day is just that, a tool.
But there are also cases of people who have used social networks to broadcast their messages of hate and threats, engaging in criminal practices taking advantage of the great impact of new technologies.
These types of people have been called “neopaths.” individuals who express their tensions, delusions, aggression and various problems through social networks.
The term “neopath” has a lot to do with cyberspace, social networks and the Internet in general. The virtual world is an environment in which many different people can come into contact, so it is normal to find people with all types of personalities and behaviors. As one would expect in the real world, in its substitute online we can find people whose behavior is pathological and socially inappropriate.
Among these types of people we would find neopaths, individuals, especially young people, who try to obtain recognition on the Internet no matter what, even if this means harming other people. We can say that neuropathy encompasses all those individuals who show their tensions, delusions, aggression or psychotic problems through the Internet, taking advantage of its great extension and the ability to send threats protected by anonymity, also spreading their crimes.
Although this term It does not refer to a specific disorder or a pathological style of behavior Yes, we can understand that this is a very harmful type of Internet profile. In fact, breaking down the term we can see the Greek words “neo”, which means “new”, and “pathos”, which translates as “suffering”, and we can interpret this word as meaning that a neopath is that person who has created a new way of causing suffering, and may well be considered something akin to a psychopath.
All truly neopathic crimes are implicitly linked to the Internet. Among them we could talk about throwing insults and death threats at people they hate, selecting rape victims through social networks, posting a video in which a homeless man is beaten, humiliating a schoolmate and spreading it around the group. class chat or commit computer crimes believing they are real hackers. Those who announce massacres on the networks and then commit them are also considered neopaths as has happened several times in the last two decades.
The idea behind neopaths is somewhat diffuse. It is important to understand that this is not an official diagnostic label, and that rather than referring to a mental disorder or a pathological style of behavior, it refers to the phenomenon of encountering aggressive people who use social networks to spread their unsocial behaviors. However, it is possible to talk about some characteristics of this type of people.
The first is that neopaths are usually young people under 30, although in many cases they are teenagers who, it is suspected, do not have a great social life and may even be victims of harassment both at school and on the social networks they frequent. This would result in the desire to “give back” to the world the pain they have suffered so much, taking advantage of anonymity or using an alias that makes them feel as if they were another person, much more important than what they manage to be in real life.
It has also been said that the profile of neopaths entails qualities such as narcissism, due to their great need for attention or admiration seeking Many neopaths want to achieve a certain fame in the virtual world, to be recognized for having committed something that will not be indifferent to the majority of society, even if it means doing serious harm to other people. By harming others, the neopath shows traits shared with narcissists, who tend to devalue others.
A trait that draws the attention of neopaths is that They differ from psychopaths because they leave traces on the networks of the damage they are doing Although they do have an interest in knowing what they have done, their lack of care is often due to their immaturity, instability and weakness in controlling their impulses, causing them to forget the clues that can lead them to stop them, such as the fact that practically nothing on the Internet is done anonymously.
Types of neopaths
Although each neopath is different, we can comment on some general features of their way of behaving. The desire of neopaths to find fame and notoriety is so great that in some cases they commit real atrocities without considering the consequences that may entail. The only thing that matters to them is that they are known for what they did his 15 minutes of fame for having done something truly harmful.
Since networks make it very easy for their actions to have a wide reach, they do not hesitate to spread them around. Added to this, if they know about the acts of other neopaths they try to surpass them, as if it were an barbaric competition. Naturally, there are neopathic acts that are milder than others, which indicate that we can differentiate between types of neopaths.
1. Impostors
As their name suggests, imposter neopaths are those who impersonate another person to contact their victims These victims can be real friends of the person whose identity has been stolen or, also, unknown people who trust themselves when they see the photograph or false description of that profile.
2. Predators
This neopath profile corresponds to the one who attacks with planning, hiding his identity, looking for potential victims discovering their weaknesses and taking advantage of them.
3. Informants
They are those neopaths who report their crimes. Within this category we can differentiate between two main types, the one that reports the crime that has already been committed and the one that warns of the ones that it plans to commit.
Those who have already committed them warn of their crime by posting it on the networks They are people who may well have harmed an animal or even a person, recorded the vile act and posted it on the networks so that it spreads and people know them, even under a pseudonym.
Those who plan to commit them take advantage of the Internet to promote the crimes they intend to commit in the near future, such as a school shooting, setting off a bomb, murdering someone…
4. Relays
Related to the previous category we have neopaths who broadcast in real time the crime they are committing. This type of aggressor is the most striking, since we could well say that He behaves like a star eager to get fans in this case witnesses of the criminal acts he is committing.
The neopath broadcaster feeds on the uncertainty of those who are watching what is happening live, since since it is not a pre-recorded video, it is not very clear how it will end, with how many victims or injuries the fateful broadcast may end up with.
The fact that there are different types of neopaths indicates that, despite the fact that the Internet and social networks have been around for years, today there is little control over the content that is posted on them and, unfortunately, there are also little control when managing threats released into cyberspace
Although there are some mechanisms that prevent this type of content from thriving on the networks, what escapes can become something truly dangerous.
Since the Columbine massacre, there have been many neopaths who have tried to overcome that event. To mention a few cases of murderers who have warned of what they were going to do and have done it, we have the cases of Cho Seung-Hui, perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre (2007), the Finnish Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who caused the Jokela high school massacre (2007) and another compatriot, Matti Juhani Saari, author of the Kauhajoki high school massacre (2008).
The problem is not only in the fact that they were warned of what they were going to do and that no one was able to stop it, but that the content posted on the networks is very difficult to eliminate, despite the intention to stop its circulation. . This applies not only to videos of student massacres, but also to recordings of rape, snuff videos and other types of videos that show a crime that, once it is posted on the Internet, its dissemination is almost unlimited.
For this reason, it is necessary to make responsible use of the networks, not only being careful with what is posted on them, knowing that others can misuse our information, but also appropriately reporting any content that poses a serious danger to society or that shows how a crime is committed. Although it will be very difficult for this content to be removed, the person responsible for it will have to explain themselves to the relevant authorities and may even be prevented from committing a truly heinous act.
