Which is fine Craig. I just think it points to something bigger as a society. Before social media existed the opportunity to do such a thing wouldn't exist. I suppose I'm a much more private person and in fairness I don't have a huge media platform/profile, but it seems as though nothing is private anymore and it scares me quite a bit.
I have no idea who the people in this story are, but I think I saw the picture you are talking about in the paper yesterday (Friday).
It has to be said, we all react to grief in different ways. There are no rules on how to deal with it, and we have to negotiate our own personal path through it. I remember when my Dad was dying in 2017 my Mum fell asleep whilst holding his hand, sat beside his bed. Their hands and her wedding ring painted a heartbreaking picture, and we took a photograph of their hands together which our Mum cherishes. For us though, this was a deeply private moment, and if it had been posted on any social media we'd have been livid.
Personally, there is no way on this earth that I'd have anyone taking pictures of me distraught in hospital after losing a child. If they did so, and posted it, they wouldn't be a friend any longer. Having said that, I value privacy far more than I value exposure and acknowledgement. I love the fact that if I Google my name I am very hard to find and strangers cannot access intimate details of my life. I've never had a Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Friends Reunited or similar account and never would either. I honestly find it utterly bizarre how so many people are so happy to let anyone who cares to search their name have a direct line into their lives and a view of virtually all that goes on within it. Again though, I'm much more private than many.
I believe you are right in questioning what all this says about society. We certainly live in a very strange, dysfunctional and detached time. That's odd in itself, because in a time where communication is easier than it's ever been, we are even more detached from our own lived experience. Walk down any street and people are like zombies, glued to their phones. I've sat on a bus and watched young people sat next to each other texting each other rather than actually talking. I sat in Krakow town square one night with a table full of eight women tourists sat behind us and they never even spoke with one and other. All they did for most of the night was text on their phones. When I go to concerts/gigs I see much of the audience watching the show on their phone screens rather than watching the actual live experience. Everywhere I go, there are hordes of people pouting and taking photos of themselves rather than taking in the backdrop and enjoying it.
Thing is, it's all about the self now, not the place, not the experience, just the self. The backdrop serves only as a ''look where I've been'' scenario that can be posted on social media and draw attention. I'm not surprised though, because the world has been going down the self-obsession route for quite some time now. People, in general, are also more insecure now than they ever have been. Advertisers, the fashion industry, the beauty industry and plenty of other culprits have seen to that. How? Well they have to pick at peoples' flaws in order to create insecurity so they can then sell them the 'solution' to the 'problems' they previously didn't know they had. They don't like the population being comfortable in its own skin, because that doesn't sell product. Insecurity sells products dressed up as solutions. In other words, they strip us of our confidence, then tell us we can buy it back if we buy their products.
All of the above breeds an insecure, needy population. A population that needs endless external validation just to feel ok about itself. Everyone wants and needs 'likes' because 'likes' make them feel good for a fleeting moment. It's like a drugs hit. It may feel nice for a short time, but it doesn't fill the void or fix your problems, so you need more and more of it until you are dependent. Modern living is designed to create a void within us all, so that when we are offered the expensive 'solutions' we jump at them. If you want to make money off people, you make them insecure, you make them needy, you make them doubt themselves ... then you sell them back their self-esteem via your products. When we push society down that route, we get what we see all around us now. Insecure, self-obsessed people chasing external approval in any way they can get it. Social media offers them the platform to do just that.
