Social Death

Of course it's always a strange and unsettling event when a person dies. It's the great unknown, right?

What makes death even stranger now, is social media. If I die tomorrow my Twitter would still exist. When celebrities die, their accounts live on too. What's even weirder is the combination of those two ideas, like when a normal person gets famous after they die.

What inspired this post was a national news story about a scientist who died suddenly, lethally shot inside his own tent, while camping with his two young daughters in Southern California. Perhaps you clicked on the story. You probably did because that's exactly what the story is-- click bait. The guy wasn't famous and now he's click bait famous. I feel like it's really unfair to his family.

Plus, since the man wasn't famous before, people are letting loose with their opinions. Kate Spade died, and of course, it's only friendly fire. But since he's a nobody, he goes up for public trial. As the news story trended, his name became a hashtag. People came up with conspiracy theories, like big pharma had gunned him down. Other people passed blame on his wife. They're just letting loose, while none of them should speak at all. A man is dead. Give him some respect. Social media is one big experiment in desensitization.

I'm not innocent. I've yelled at Casey Anthony, or Drew Peterson on my TV set. I never realized the stupidity of this public trial nonsense until now, and that's because I met the poor guy. The scientist worked closely with my wife in grad school, and they published a paper together. He's not Bruce Banner, he's not Deadpool, he's just an honest guy who died suddenly at a young age. It's really sad.

But,oh no, it's not sad-- it's an exciting mystery! And some lady watched 100 episodes of CSI, so she bets she knows what happened. People are so strange, and sometimes it makes me sick. It's all an odd part of human nature. I have judged before, but not this time.