You wouldn’t post an R.I.P. status update if someone you knew personally passed away, would you?
And exactly how are people supposed to express their sorrow at the death of someone they know or respect? Telepathy?
Obituaries are a very old art form. If you're uncomfortable with the fact that they have switched media, that's your problem.
And I just love the class of person who goes out into the world, hunting high and low for something to be offended by. Nobody spammed this guy: He followed people on social networks and Google, and then got pissed off at what they said. If you don't like what your friends send to you, perhaps you need different friends.
Why is this okay? You wouldn’t post an R.I.P. status update if someone you knew personally passed away, would you?
The family of an acquaintance of mine recently went through a difficult time. They chose, wisely, to keep their suffering private, relying on a few close relations to help them get through this rough patch.
The privacy rules for celebrities are already wildly different than for "normal" people. Whether celebrities are entitled to more privacy than they receive is a different argument, but why would a celebrity's death be a special case? If they live in the public eye, it comes as no surprise that they also die in the public eye.
Let people express their emotions how they want to. It's not for anyone to tell someone else that their emotions aren't real, that their expression isn't real or that they shouldn't be allowed to communicate publically about it.
I fail to see how the cited article is any different in spirit than a traditional obit. Hasn't it been common to quote people who knew the dead person? And, don't those people usually share a memory or some thought about why the dead person was important?
And exactly how are people supposed to express their sorrow at the death of someone they know or respect? Telepathy?
Obituaries are a very old art form. If you're uncomfortable with the fact that they have switched media, that's your problem.
And I just love the class of person who goes out into the world, hunting high and low for something to be offended by. Nobody spammed this guy: He followed people on social networks and Google, and then got pissed off at what they said. If you don't like what your friends send to you, perhaps you need different friends.