SocraticGadfly: The dark side of the Internet: public grieving and #bucketbaby

May 01, 2012

The dark side of the Internet: public grieving and #bucketbaby

Does the death of that "bucket list baby" really deserve the media attention it's getting? I mean, this was the parents' "bucket list," not an infant's who couldn't write down a list, let alone understand an abstract concept like "bucket list." Is this the next "dark side of the Internet" ... publicizing grief?

People on the other side of the coin might argue this is a great thing. I'd argue it's about two steps remove from Mark Zuckerberg creating Funeralbook as a Facebook spinoff.

And, if it delayed the parents facing reality, it was worse than just cheap publicity  at their baby's expense; it hurt their own grieving process. Or made it more callow. "Denial" is a cable Internet stream, then, as well as a river in Egypt.

And a trendsetter of a one, too.

And, it won't even be 15 minutes of fame on the Net ... it will be more for the early adopters of such trends, less for late-comers.

Marshall McLuhan would have a doozy with this one.

None of this is meant to be insensitive to these or other parents, especially parents of infants', actual grief. Even the idea of a "baby bucket list," by itself, doesn't strike me as "wrong."

But, the public, Internet sharing of it with not just friends, but strangers of the general public, DOES strike me that way.

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