Facebook vs Grieving

Facebook vs Grieving

By: Brent Hitchcock

So over this gruesome week of school I've been struggling to wrap my head around this term of remembrance that was brought up in my social media and society class. That's pretty much all we have talked about all week. Haha that's what this blog is about so ya get ready to read about this beef Facebook is having with the public.

When you hear about drama with Facebook it's usually never something someone did to Facebook its something Facebook did to someone. With that being said we went over an article in our class about this woman whose Facebook posts of her deceased baby where deleted off of Facebook by the one and only Facebook itself. Facebook is claiming that it breaks their policy laws or some bullshit but the weird thing is that people should always be allowed to post pictures as a way to help grieve over the death of a loved one. With Facebook there problem Is that they posted a picture of a baby that was already dead. 

This can be seen an example of the term reverberance. The term is used in ceremony for someone who died. In this case the couple was posting a one year anniversary picture of the newborn baby they had lost. Them posting a picture of their baby was the ceremony part of the definition. But Facebook being an everyday social media platform... pissed some people off (shocker) and deleted their post. Which I honestly find edgy humorous but also really shitty of them to do to someone.

 But hey I didn't make the rules.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rne3C7fZEA7X_tdXJ93gvQxDlmCTUhFZ1psQFHVBKtE/edit

With the late passing of Kobe Bryant we can use this term of remembrance as a perfect example of people using social media as a platform to showcase their love and passion for someone they hold a special place in their heart that has died. All I have seen on all of my social media platform timelines since his passing has been videos and pictures tribute to Kobe Bryant. This thing went world wide, Like literally. There are teams and people from all over the world paying their respects to one of the goats of basketball

In my terms this is perfect timing for bringing up this definition for a blog not trying to sound like an asshole I'm just saying. But the difference between posts about Kobe and a deceased baby are very,  very different. On one hand you have people posting past images and videos of someone showcasing talents on the hardwood as well as memories that had some sort of special impact on people. On the other hand you have a family who is trying to grieve over their baby who died over a year ago. But that got taken down because the baby was already deceased. I might be losing you with this topic but before I do what I'm trying to say is that there are different ways people can use remembrance for the deceased and Facebook wasn't having it with this couple. 

This controversy about Facebook to me is a little ridiculous because it a baby man. Let people grieve, deleting their post is like a slap to the face of the life that those parents tried to make, and its truly grossly disrespectful but like I said earlier. I don't make the rules ahaha. Fr the Kobe situation Facebook wouldn't ever need to worry about deleting something for Kobe Bryant but now that I think about it, could you imagine the hell that would be paid if Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram deleted a tribute video/ post of Kobe just for the heck of it. Oh my gosh people would go ballistic over it. Probably even more than if it was Kobe's family was in the same situation that one couple was in on Facebook. It's just the fact that its Kobe Bryant and he's a legendary icon in the game of basketball and a person everyone in the world could look up to.

But it's not just Facebook that has these rules, Instagram is probably worse than Facebook but I'm pretty sure Facebook owns Instagram.. lol. But for me when I think of remembrance I like to show my appreciation or grief for the loss of a loved one by working to accomplish my own goals in life in honor of their names. It keeps me motivated and holds me accountable for my actions and always hangs over my head as a reminder of why I'm working so hard and why I shouldn't give up. Plus I'm also young so I  guess I have that option as a way to express remembrance unlike other people that depend on social media to show their grief about someone to others through a screen. I guess dedicating your work like I do with my sports doesn't feel the same. especially when you're a little older and kind of lose the drive you had as a young bull. But hey that's just my assumption, until then I'll be waiting to be proven wrong but most people that are older use social media to express grief when in honesty it's not the best way to get through it. your sorta just feeding the attention drug everyone craves on social media. Maybe if people put more of their attention of grief into there work in the office it would actually help relieve some stress and depression that is built up inside, because they are grieving but at the same time there are going to look at all the work they accomplished while going through it and feel some sort of fulfillment about themselves and the situation. I promise this is ten times better. Social media is a drug people and you need to believe it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dZdJiYBQWhBVJUafMh6ex3JxPp56CvdO-fEu28VG_PM/edit