For many, the Internet truly has come to feel as necessary as clocks or cell phones. This seems to be more so for young people acclimated to the amenities of the modern world. The Japanese already have a word for those who cloister themselves away from the world, only to interact with it through the Internet. They call them “hikikomori.”

Japanese police found two cars yesterday with nine people in all who are believed to have committed suicide. And they believe they met and coordinated their deaths online.

It’s a sad story, knowing that a group of young people, in their teens and early 20s, felt so hopeless that they carried out their deaths. Some critics of the Internet will say it’s dangerous, that it enables this kind of group self-killing. The organizers of a website where suicide is discussed say they offer a compassionate service to those who need it.

Maybe we shouldn’t blame the tools for the actions of the user. Still, maybe what’s missing is some human, tangible, offline compassion so the hikikomori around the world no longer choose to be stranded.

Vinnee Tong