Today, someone I never met took his own life in front of his neighborhood church. Today I looked at all he presented himself to be online, a helpful, wonderful, productive citizen – and I would have never guessed he would ever have wanted to take anyone’s life, much less his own. Every piece of his online persona was so warm and wonderful. Today people that knew him are grieving, and baffled, and angry, and my heart hurts for them. Read more
Tag Archive for: social media
Four years ago I watched my mother get happily married in Vegas before she flew off to England to start her new life. Three years ago, she flatlined during routine angioplasty and almost lost that new and wonderful life. My mother almost died another two times after that, covering her bathroom walls with blood from a burst femoral artery. Read more
I was so disappointed with the behavior I saw on Twitter this past week, pouty little fits about celebrities on twitter, campaigns to unfollow anyone who mentions such and such a person. I’m sure most of it was meant jokingly, but as a collective group of interaction, there is a much bigger malevolence and fear at play here. Could it be? Geek snobbery as Diana Culbert puts it? Sadly, I think yes, the geek elite afraid that with the “celebrity endorsements” will come scores of mainstream people who discover the amazingness of twitter in the same awkward way that the rest of us did. Maybe people have forgotten that the beauty of this simple little tool is that anyone with internet access can use it, and one doesn’t have to talk to anyone they don’t want to, but can (attempt to) have a conversation with every user. Celebrity or no – we all choose who to follow. Whether it’s @aplusk, @oprah, you or me – twitter is empowering that way. I advise you to open your mind to the idea that twitter will grow, and in the meantime, fine tune your filters.
To follow or unfollow me find me here on twitter