I've noticed some people using Facebook status updates to tell quite personal information: anything from tirades about a friend or family member's behavior to proclamations of love to a fiance, from ultrasound pictures of the baby-to-come to the state of the wart on their second toe. These might not sound that bad to you, but it's likely you've winced or groaned at something personal someone has posted online (I'm thinking of Facebook).
But that's their deal, right? They can decide what they do or do not want on the internet, and they can pay the consequences for that, including being revealed as immature, ridiculous, or gossipy. That is, if the information is theirs alone. But often it isn't.
You can share a lot of information and media online, and often the only inhibition placed on you by the sites is the dialog box asking if you have the right to publish that information. You simply click "yes" and it's up. Pictures, personal information, videos of subjects who thought it wouldn't leave the room, even embarassing gushing of a parent on a teenager's Fb wall—all of it, if it is within the bounds of "decency," can legally and easily be published online.
Is a mourning family entitled to not have to tell anyone or console anyone else for a few hours, or should they tell everyone immediately?
How is that information to be prevented from finding its way to people not particularly wanted at the funeral? Just some thoughts.
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