Grief in the time of Social Media

My cousin passed away New Year’s Eve Eve.  It wrapped up the a’int shitness of 2016 in the most shit way.

So I’ve been unsure about what to do exactly.  I mean you do the things you need to do and check on people and grieve and run errands cry and buy tights for dresses (because I haven’t worn hoisery since……) and remember the good times, you still go on about what you try to do as normal.  But there’s something odd about our social grief.  And only because it’s *new* and there’s no proper way to do it.

We all share our own version of our lives on the Internet and so when something extremely personal happens you share or not share in your own eFashion.  I haven’t shared much but I also don’t know what to share, if anything at all.  It’s all too social?  Personal?  Hard?  All the things.

But then people share their memories and stories and photos and it’s a great community of support and per usual, that’s the good of the Internet.

So take all your selfies and tag all your friends and share as much or as little as you want in your virtual space.  Send text and tweet people and SnapChat. But also call people and send letters and print your photos and spend time with people.

3 thoughts on “Grief in the time of Social Media

  1. Went through a similar experience at the end of the year (lost a co-worker in a horrible tragedy). My offline life (especially my job) is separate from my Internet life. I didn'the grieve online at all.

    So thanks for writing this. You spoken to a lot of what I've felt for the last few weeks.

  2. Amen! I don't know if I could ever grieve via social media other than the occasional photo to share a fond memory. All the feels, Bre' Bre'!

Comments and stuff...