Last Night a Twitterer Saved My Life

Oh Twitter.  How did we survive before you.  Sure there was Facebook, MySpace and Friendster, but none seemed to cause the stir that you have brought into our lives.  It's true that some of us are using Twitter for the reasons it was intended by co-creator Dom Sagoll: to update others on our real-time moves.  Others use it to disseminate info about their product or service (often called SPAM).  But like all things happy, there are always those that take a happy thing and make it sad.  In other words, Twitter has its share of rotten apples.

I could give examples that would make your head spin.  The hot topic that's making its way from the social media sites to the traditional media is the story of the mom who allegedly tweeted her way through her 2 year old son's horrific fall into the swimming pool straight through to after he died, about 5 hours later.

One moment she was tweeting about the weather, the next she was asking followers for prayers.  Hours later she was memorializing her son on the popular social media site.

Bloggers and journalists from the US to Israel to Europe and back are judging this mom for everything from who was watching her son while she was busy tweeting for hours prior to his fall to why wasn't she holding his hand as he died instead of tweeting to how could she function adequately to coherently form a sentence and hit the update button.

I'm not judging this woman.  In my mind, it's just another family suffering my own worst nightmare and I feel compassion.  I'm sad that during such a horrific moment, this family has to endure public scrutiny over anything. 

But this situation aside, I am questioning if Web 2.0 has invaded our private lives to an extreme and whether the intense relationships we are fostering with our electronic devices are healthy.  And I'm just not sure.

I get both sides.  Get a life, people!  Disconnect from your computer, get out into the real world, meet a friend for lunch (IRL), enjoy a pat on the back once in a while.  A hug.  A mall.  A real-live relationship.

And then I hear the opposition.  People living in rural areas have been craving more extensive networks and through the Internet this is now available, simple.  Moms who stay home with kids who were formerly lonely and isolated now have friends who are doing the same thing.  People who cannot get out of their houses to work can now receive an income by way of their computers.

But it's my opinion that we might be over-sharing just a tad. 

I read lots of blogs.  Blogs about everything from relationships to the latest and greatest to fashion and celebrities.  I'm mostly drawn to blogs by people who write personal stories, who take the reader on their daily voyage through their life even during their most personal crises.  I currently am following the blog of a woman who is going through a tough time in her marriage and is documenting all for everyone - including her husband, mother and mother-in-law - to read.  So while I wonder how anyone could put so much information out there for all the world to see, I'm drawn to it at the same time.

I've said publicly how I wish in many ways that I trusted the world at large enough to spill my secrets out into it and see what comes back.  I am a writer by nature.  What better way to receive support when you need it most than to write about your troubles and get support in return?  Trouble is, the more you spill into the world, the more you'll get back, and not always in the form that you hope.

Just ask celebrities.  

So do I think this mom need be burnt at the stake for tweeting her way through a tragedy?  I don't.  And in a perfect world only those with something nice to say would say anything at all and those with nothing nice to say would keep quiet.  But it doesn't work that way.  I'm just sorry that we are learning this at some other person's expense.

Comments

[jessica]

I am of the ilk, do not judge until you have walked in that person's shoes and so I will not comment on this woman or her actions b/c it's not my business to do so.

You are right, however. Sometimes, I really do need to disconnect and just live. It's hard though, very hard

[Jodi - Mom's Favorite Stuff]

And sometimes you get to meet great IRL friends from your blogging...

When's our next get-together?