Mourning Celebrity Deaths Online

[Diana]

This did change my perspective a lot, but not about mourning online. O___O I've never had a problem with people mourning death online. But I have always been really twitchy when people mourn celebrities and people they don't know. I never "got it". I mean I always feel a little sad to hear they're gone and I have the empathy about it, but I didn't know them personally and I never really got why others would make a huge deal about it.

But then that bit about us getting upset over fictional characters and how we connect to certain pieces of art/music that changes us as a person made it all CLICK for me. @___@ I never put those thoughts together before. We don't know them but they still can have a huge impact on our lives. So that really switched my whole POV about that now. O___O

 

[Hope]

Wow. I didn't think I'd enjoy that video ad much as I did but it really opened my mind and made me look inside myself.

I did not know that #funeralselfie was a thing, and I will admit that when I first heard it I was instinctual appalled. Maybe because I saw it as another thing for people to show off like they do their food all over social media. It wasn't until he started explaining that this is the way the teenagers express themselves now that I began to accept it. I think my own issues with social media are about the dependency on social media as a whole and not just about the funeral selfies. I'm actually not a huge fan of social media and the dependency on it but that is for another thread.

I really liked how he touched on the fact that nobody has the right to say where, when, and who can mourn someone wether they know them in real life or just from the tv screen. I for one, have stopped watching whole series that I have followed for years and years because they killed off my favorite character. And it makes complete sense that in today's day people will flood to the Internet to mourn with a community of like minded individuals. Afterall, we know that it is healthy to publicly mourn rather than keeping it bottled up inside.

I also like that he mentioned how we here in the west kind of don't know what to do with people who are in mourning and we try to distract them from their grief. This is one hundred percent true in most situations. If the person who is mourning is not super close to you then you get uncomfortable. I know in my case I just don't know what to say to someone because I've experienced terrible grief and I know there is nothing that can be said to heal their heart. Only time can help ease the pain, and anything I can think of just sounds like a cliche. "Just take it one day at a time." "It won't hurt forever." "I'm so sorry for your loss." "Can I do anything?"

No. I can't do anything and I know that. Hoeever, I do try to make myself available so that the person knows they can cry on my shoulder or vent to me if they just need to shout out their feelings.

Anywhoo... I enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Shiri]

Huh, had no idea this was an issue. I mean obituaries exist and I see it on the same level. As far as funeral selfies go, that's just way an individual can cope with grief. It doesn't come off as narcissism to me or at least not the harmful kind. I think media just like to throw around the negative connotation of narcissism for kicks. Its a fun yo-yo effect "you have to look the way we want you to but you can't enjoy it~ 8D".