But you didn’t even know them personally…
First and foremost, R.I.P. to one of the undeniable, monumental, incomparable, and truly remarkable voices of our generation, Ms. Whitney Houston. I still cannot believe that Whitney has passed. Her death hit me kind of like Michael’s. Truth be told, I’m still not over MJ’s death and it’s now been a few years. I digress.
It goes without saying that social networking makes a lot of things more entertaining. Award shows, television shows, hot topic news items, and more all seem to be amplified when you are having an impromptu viewing party with millions of other people. Social networking also makes a lot of things really sucky and just plain awful. One of those nuances is without a shadow of a doubt, the death of a celebrity. Social networking becomes a horrible wasteland of poor taste, political incorrectness, failed attempts at comedic greatness, and lots of mindless, idiots pining for the spot of “THAT guy/girl”.
We’ve all seen how this plays out on Twitter and Facebook when a celeb passes. People begin to tweet RIP’s and express their sorrow over that person’s death. This is magnified times 1000 when the death is completely random and untimely, such as Whitney’s tragic passing over the weekend. There is, however, another ugly trend which walks a few feet behind the general expressions of sorrow. I’d like to call this ugly stalker: The crabs. They serve no purpose but to try to bring people down and somehow get to the top. When I say the top, I’m referring to some sort of recognition in the world of social networking.
Next to “you shoulda thought about that before you _____” my next most hated phrase is easily “you didn’t even know them personally” in reference to someone expressing sorrow over the passing of a public figure. If there was a device that allowed you to virtually punch someone in the face via web I would, without a second thought, buy it immediately!
Let me explain to you all just why I hate that phrase so much. I will also explain why it is, perhaps, one of the most illogical, stupidest phrases you can ever utter and why you should never in your life say it again!
Some losers live to be THAT guy. Who is “THAT guy” you ask? THAT guy is the one who does everything in his power to go against the grain, even when he doesn’t believe in the views he’s expressing. THAT guy enjoys having an opposite view from what he deems as being the popular consensus. THAT guy thrives off the chaos and turbulence he believes he creates by playing devil’s advocate. THAT guy loves to say ridiculous idiocracies solely for shock value purpose. THAT guy believes that he is somehow intellectually superior because he doesn’t go with the masses. THAT guy is usually the biggest loser in real life, so he has to create some sort of sensationalism via web to prevent him from going through with that plan of killing himself after dinner.
Now that we have established who THAT guy is, let’s move on.
So while people express sorrow, THAT guy swoops in like the vulture he/she is to counter everyone’s expressions of sorrow with “But you didn’t even know them like that”, “I mean it’s sad but damn people die every day”, and “how is that affecting your life”.
My rebuttal: How is me expressing my sorrow affecting YOUR life exactly?
The Internet is pretty simple. So I will explain to you how I know for a fact all the people who go on these campaigns of expressing how ridiculous it is for us common folk to express sorrow are solely doing it for recognition. You see, the way the Internet is set up, you can view what you want to see and not view what you don’t want to see….*GASP*….Shocking, I know. So when you truly are annoyed with something or someone, you don’t acknowledge it. Furthermore, how is someone wishing another human being eternal paradise personally affecting your life?!
Did you lose money over the fact that 75% of your social network friends wrote RIP’s to a celeb? Did you lose sleep? Did it ruin your relationship? Is it affecting your health? Are you somehow incapacitated and being forced to scroll through every single newsfeed whilst someone holds a gun to your head and demand that you read every single RIP and sorrow filled statuses or tweet? Did your real life outside of social media come to a complete halt, forcing you to only be able to participate in social networking?
Yeah, when you look at it, it looks pretty ridiculous, huh? The bottom line is, if someone expressing sorrow over the end of a human life is somehow affecting you personally to the point where you have to hurl a barrage of insults at them for it, you truly have deep psychological issues that need to be worked out by a professional.
The next issue at hand is the people who think it’s ridiculous to express sorrow over a celeb because they didn’t know the celeb personally or weren’t affected by their life. Ok, that’s well and good but again I ask, HOW IS IT AFFECTING YOU?!
No one knows these celebs personally, we get it. But why does it bother you so much that someone is expressing a general sorrow for their passing? Even if someone appears to be personally hurt by the passing, HOW IS THAT AFFECTING YOU?! “They’re being extra like they really know him/her.” Ok, and??! You have options for controlling what you view. Furthermore, HOW…IS…IT…AFFECTING…YOU?!!
Jesus Christ! Are we so detached as a society that it’s become some sort of crime for us to express a natural human emotion regardless of how well we knew the deceased?!
For those of you who always use that ridiculous line, I want to put something in perspective for you.
Unless you were raised by a roving pack of wolves, let’s assume that you have a family. When a relative passes, you immediately express sorrow and may do so via social networking. So let’s say on your status someone says they wish you would stop posting RIP’s to this relative because they didn’t know that person nor did that person have any effect on their life and they’re tired of seeing it. Another person then posts some sort of joke about the deceased. They too said that it’s not a big deal because they personally don’t know your deceased relative and don’t understand why you are taking it so seriously. After all, it’s not like your relative was well-known to them nor had an impact on their life in any type of way. So you immediately begin to feel some type of way and tell them that your relative had an impact on your life and they were important to you. The hecklers respond with more cynicism because your relative has no impact on their life and they really don’t see the big deal with their statements.
Now let’s apply that to social media’s handling of celebrity deaths. Imagine if you will, that person who died is actually a human…*GASP* I know, I know. Another shocker. Now think about the fact that celebrities can impact people in a variety of ways. Personally, there are some celebs whose music touches my soul because of the nostalgic memories which ensue as soon as I just see them. So I associate their music and legacy with a happy chapter of my life. So hearing of their demise saddens me because I was raised with their music and associate them with happy emotions. So according to the logic of THAT guy, I don’t have the right to even utter so much as a “RIP” because I didn’t regularly have dinner with this person. I don’t have the right to say “RIP” because I didn’t talk about them daily. It’s dumb for me to express sadness over their passing because they didn’t regularly text me or invite me over to their place. It makes absolutely no sense when you actually sit down and think about the logic of these internet trolls.
Again, for the 30-’leventh time, I ask you, HOW IS IT AFFECTING YOU?! HOW?!
It doesn’t matter if people don’t personally know celebs. A life lost, is a life lost. When people die someone is losing a parent, a sibling, an aunt/uncle, a friend, a hero, and a plethora of other titles we gain whilst on this Earth. If for nothing else, when a celeb dies, people empathize because we’ve all been through the grieving process. It’s called humanity! As a living, breathing human who has gone through lots of life events, we know that death is tragic regardless of the individual’s status. People can be expressing sorrow for a variety of reasons.
Some people may have just lost a mother. Some may have had a friend to have passed recently. Some may have fond memories associated with the deceased. The common denominator is whatever the reason is for their decision to express sorrow, IT’S THEIR PREROGATIVE. Meaning, someone’s expression of sorrow has absofckinglutely NOTHING….I repeat… NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU!
If it bothers you so much to see people express sadness over a celebrity, why are you still on that site viewing it? Before you start trying to be THAT guy, imagine for a moment if people acted that way over your relative. Your mother may be a celeb in your eyes but I don’t know her personally, nor would I be affected by her death. Just because I’m not affected by your mother’s death and don’t know her personally, doesn’t give me the right to make a mockery of her existence or deem it ridiculous that you are expressing sadness over her passing.
I know the Internet is a cesspool of individuals who wear the 1st Amendment as some sort of armor but there are really some things, in my opinion, that are in poor taste and inappropriate on any level. Making a mockery of the dead for some laughs on twitter and facebook is one of those inappropriate gestures.
People astound me over their insensitivity and lameness when it comes to these celeb deaths. At the end of the day, a celebrity is still a human. Just because they are well-known and affluent doesn’t give you the right to make bad jokes about their demise especially when it JUST happened. Unless your family was granted with some sort of immortality, remember that they too have an expiration date. God does not like ugly nor does he appreciate the mockery of His work. He often teaches us life lessons by giving us a taste of our own bad medicine. So the next time you’re trying to become Twitter’s Next Top Comedian, consider for a moment that your insensitivity will eventually be put to the test. Somehow, it’s not funny when people are speaking ill of someone you know personally is it?
The Moral of the story is this: You control what you view. What other people eat doesn’t make you shit. So unless you have some rare condition where you become physically ill and your income suffers because other people are posting their condolences for a life lost, please stop trying so hard to be THAT guy. You have the option to not view. If you are thinking someone’s death is your big opportunity to garner tons of RT’s and status comments for your wanton insensitivity and failed attempt at humor, remember that there are countless other trolls such as yourself who have no problem finding the humor in your mother’s untimely death. In terms of idolization, unless someone makes it their life mission to use their entire savings to build a life-size monument of the deceased celeb and do a daily ritual with it, expressing grief over a celebrity is NOT indicative of idolizing them over Christ.
Why do people act like they have to sit and read statuses? I just don’t understand. If it’s not personally affecting you then ignore, mute, unfollow, unfriend, unsubscribe, or whatever else you have to do to stop being exposed to it. YOU CONTROL WHAT YOU SEE! Some of y’all would be offended if you accessed my profile and saw how many people’s feeds I have hidden. Rather than complain about their annoying ass statuses, I took control and hid them from my sight. It’s not that hard people. I mean, after all, you HAVE to be on Facebook and twitter and read every single comment that everyone says, right?
People never cease to amaze me with their unwavering concern over issues which have no affect on them. People are always worrying about the wrong damn things, I swear.
