What is it with Facebook and other social media?
Is it really just that therapeutic to share your feelings with the world? Or is it just another addiction like cigarettes or drugs?
I’m beginning to think it’s an addiction that people just can’t stay away from… Not to mention, the media just eats it up.
I read an article online this morning about a man who was hanging Christmas lights for his 4-year-old daughter, and while he was making some adjustments to his “winter wonderland,” he was electrocuted and died. The article went on to mention how he planned to propose to his girlfriend underneath the very lights he died putting up. What a heartbreaker, right?
The pictures in the article were pulled from Facebook, so I pulled up this guy’s poor girlfriend’s page to see the outpouring of love and support that neighbors and others were sharing.
What I found, however, shocked me. I saw that this girl has been consistently posting on Facebook since he died. She’s shared numerous Pinterest photos and has posted some other things, as well. Um, excuse me, but if your soon-to-be-fiancé just died, do you think scouring Pinterest is really a good idea?
According to her very own Facebook page, her boyfriend died on December 17th. Yep, that’s right. She posted that very night on her wall that her boyfriend had just passed away after falling off a roof while hanging Christmas lights. Am I the only one who finds that a little insensitive and odd?
Only five days after that, she posts “Rain Rain Go Away!!!”
What the heck?! Perhaps I’m the odd man out here, but after only five days, I can’t imagine I would even be on Facebook, much less annoyed by the rainy weather. I would still be devastated – confined to my bed, unable to even get dressed in the mornings. I would be thankful for my mom and sister taking care of my kids, whom I would be completely unable to take care of by myself that soon after the love-of-my-life had tragically and senselessly died.
Then, the following day, she posts a picture she found on Pinterest talking about true love. She commented on it, saying, “I was so lucky to find this once… Hopefully I’ll be blessed enough to find it again.”
Say what??!! When I saw that particular post, I was speechless at her cavalier attitude and mention of finding love in the future. Again, maybe it’s just me, but I can’t imagine even the thought of looking for love again less than a week after my “soulmate” had died.
As I sat, staring at my computer in disbelief, I came to two conclusions. Either,
1. Facebook is like crack, and people really can’t stay away from it; or
2. The media just loves an ironic, heartbreaking story.
Maybe this guy had no intention of really proposing this Christmas under his magical lightshow. After all, they did just meet in the fall, according to the article. But, of course, the Romeo and Juliet irony is just too amazing to skip past on your newsfeed. I admit, it was hard not to fall in love with this heartbreaking story the second I read it.
So why didn’t the writer just focus on the man’s daughter, then? There was no question that he had a daughter whom he loved to death – that much was evident in the pictures he had taken with her. I wonder if that was because the author was unable to interview her since she’s a minor. It always sounds better when you can get some good quotes in from a heartbroken lover, right? In this particular story, the social-media-loving girlfriend was quoted as saying that she would have said “yes” to the man whom she claimed to love so much.
Well, duh… I’m sure you would have. But since you can’t now, we’ll all just shower you with our sympathies as you continue to post about the weather on Facebook and find some good crafts to try on Pinterest.
What do you think? Am I just being an insensitive witch, or do you call bologna on this whole story, too? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!