Just saw this on twitter:
It caught my attention, because a couple of days ago I posted this:
Over at The Punch is a reaction by Lanai Vasek (@newsbee on Twitter) who suggests that things have "gotten out of hand". That there "needs to be some sort of regulation" about bad news such as this being posted on Facebook. I understand the sentiment, but we need to accept some things if we are to remain human as technology reaches further and further into our lives. Regulation of this kind could only be de-humanising, because it seeks to control our emotional responses.
In response I added this comment to the article:
For all the "how would you like it" commenters...
This did happen to me this week: logged on to Facebook to find one friend leaving a message about the death of another. There is no doubt it felt strange compared to hearing it spoken by someone, but the news itself was sadder than the way it was delivered.
Many years ago (before mobile phones and the internet), I was living overseas when I heard about the death of my aunt -- via a letter from my brother which described her funeral. The vagaries of international post had meant his letter arrived before the one from my father with the actual news of her death. *That* was a shock. And I felt so far away, isolated in time as well as space.
Today, I find Facebook and Twitter keep me connected to friends and family spread around the globe in a way that is far more immediate and personal than anything previously. In the past I may have gone months or years without hearing from or about an old friend; now I hear about babies and relationships and all sort of news as it happens. And I like that.
Hearing about deaths is not really that different from hearing about births. In fact, if "bad" news was regulated and I could only get somebody's idea of "good" news via social networks, that would actually be more isolating, less human. It would make social networks a false world. Pleasantville. Eden before the apple -- a world of unknowing.
In the end, I just saw what happened to me this week as a marker. The first time, but not the last, that I will find out such news this way. But life is like that, full of good and bad.
