I don't mean to be a bummer...

This is not to bring anyone to tears but like my fellow blogger, zefrank, I had a similar and saddening experience only this past week . A friend of mine passed away suddenly on Monday at age 17 and within a few hours, the entire campus knew of her death. Within that same time frame, all 4oo of her Facebook friends knew about the sad news as well. As all of her friends (including me) began updating our facebook statuses to include warm reminisces ("missing you always" or "RIP *****"), it suddenly occurred to me that maybe we shouldn't be posting this on Facebook at all. I mean what if one of her relatives, who had not been told yet, was looking at the page. No one deserves to hear news like that on Facebook. What about her boyfriend? Had anyone told him yet? Messages began appearing on her wall by 11 am. We had only found out at 9am that same morning. While zefrank feels that Facebook allowed him to feel closer to his cousin and more involved in keeping her memory alive, this situation, for me, was not the same. I began asking myself whether it was thoughtful or insensitive to post such personal news online for the world to see, even among so called "friends." Granted, Facebook groups were also created posthumously in loving memory of my friend so that we all could express our sympathies and condolences. But what are the rules? What are the courtesies? Her facebook has since been taken down. But I wonder how long people would have continued to comment on her wall and what the societal implications of that are.