Silence speaks when words shouldn't ...

So, as a link from my previous post ... Santa?! Hello?! Hello Hello Hello!!?!? Enough said. Not impressed.

It's 2012 ... well it's been 2012 for 8 days, but bear with me, blogging is not as easy as it looks, especially when most of the things that have been happening around me fall under the category of "Things That Shall Not Be Blogged About". You can imagine which, and they include a report card ... but I will not go there, other bloggers have tackled the subject in a far far better way than I could ever hope to do. Some journalists ... a bit less. Moving on ... this is very dangerous territory!

What's coming up is a blog post which is going to make me very unpopular, but what the heck, I've been wanting to say it for a long time, and the tragic events that took place on New Year's Day in Sliema have rekindled in me the annoyance I have many times felt in similar circumstances. So if you want to, do read on but if you disagree please do so respectfully, and only after perhaps giving what I say a second thought.

Dear Facebook user,

I know that sharing and communicating is fun, I form part of the FB category of users who love to share links, songs and videos, update statuses, and have sometimes fallen victim of oversharing. It's fun, and it is an outlet to vent and keep connected at all times. Some people hate it, but most like it, and fair enough, it's what makes Facebook the phenomenon that it has become.

However, and here it comes ... please please do NOT take someone else's tragedy and make it your own. Two men died on New Year's Day in tragic circumstances, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with how sad, shocked, horrified you may feel. The victims and their family don't care how you feel, especially if you have no relation with them, or only know either of them because they're the neighbours of the third cousin twice removed of your local grocer. Other people's sadness should not be taken over as your own, just to get a couple of "likes" and an outlet for you to share the intimate details of the case (well ... did you know him? Not much, but he was married to XXX...really? she works at XXXXX, and we used to go to school together 20 years ago ..."LIKE").

The Sliema tragedy is not the only time that this has happened, I've seen statuses (not necessarily limited to FB) that really annoyed me such as:

"Why is it that all the girls I fall in love with lose their father? :(" (I'm serious!)
"This year I lost my friend XXXX"

As a person who has lost someone very dear, close and loved, I do not want to see someone else pick up on it and take it as his or her own. It's MY loss, MY sadness, MY shock and no one else can possibly understand it. So please, before doing the hyena thing over the misfortune of others ask yourself some questions:

- Are you as shocked, sad and horrified as if it had happened to you?
- Would you post your shock, sadness and horror at the death of a parent, spouse or lover?
- Are the ones directly affected by a tragedy on Facebook receiving likes?

If the answers to all these questions is a no, please, just log off, or make an effort to cover yourself with a veil of respectful silence.

Thanks

Gracie