Social Not-working Sites
by on March 5th, 2010
filed under Well that's what I think any way...
Just about everyone I know is on some kind of social networking site including both my parents & my mother-in-law. They’re a great way to find long lost friends, reconnect with former coworkers, look up classmates and meet new people.
You can have whole conversations with people you’ve never met (and likely won’t), network, get the latest news or celebrity gossip, and even play DJ blipping your favorite songs. (http://blip.fm)
But as one family discovered the immediacy of these sites can be way too immediate.
Twins Angela & Maryanne woke up on their 20th birthday and signed onto theirFacebook profiles anxious to see who remembered their birthdays. Instead they were greeted with messages of “RIP Bobby” (their brother) and “RIP Chris” (a friend of their brother’s) all over their newsfeeds.
As you can imagine the girls were shocked and confused. Right away they called their brother but he didn’t answer his phone.
Then they called their mother who hadn’t received any notice from the police but she did confirm that Bobby had been with his friend Chris the night before. When their mother phoned the police, she was informed that her son, Bobby, had died in a car accident which also took the life of his friend, Chris and a third teenage passenger.
You can read more about this tragedy here- http://mashable.com/2010/02/08/facebook-brother-death/
I’ve had similar experiences although not to such a tragic degree and it makes me wonder, have these sites changed the way we communicate with each other? Instead of a personal phone call or formal invitation people are delivering their news in 140-character tweets, changing their Facebook status, sending e-vites and answering the innocent question ‘What’s on your mind?’ with bombshell announcements.
Have these sites helped or hindered social communication? And does everybody who friends you really need to know what you had for breakfast? What do you think?
My condolences to the families on the loss of their loved ones. No one should have to hear news like this in such a graphically public way.
I learned about the death of two friends and an aunt on Facebook. It was a bit disconcerting to learn that way and not via telephone or face to face.
I’m sorry about that Jack. That kind of news should be delivered in person. Sorry for your lose.
How unfortunate that the girls had to learn of their brother’s passing via social media.
The police are very careful about releasing such info until family has been notified, but I don’t think they wait until all of a victim’s relatives have been contacted.
After all, the girls could have easily seen footage of the crash site on TV news instead.