Group Mourning

A Facebook-friend of mine has invited me to join the group 'R.I.P. Jade Goody'. I don't know why, I can only assume that he read between the lines of my hobbies and interests and found 'likes obituaries' there in a suitably depressed font. I appreciate the thought behind the group as Jade did raise a lot of awareness to 'The Big C' (cancer, not her husband) and as such many people feel touched by her (not in a creepy way of course, although now she's dead this may change) and feel the need to have somewhere they can post messages in which their tears operate the keyboard creating threads that consist entirely of attempts to out-gloom fellow mourners.

Facebook's good like that. If someone dies in a car crash people would have tied flowers to a railing, but now they can tearfully tap a message of woe to a community of people that have nothing in common other than the ability to be sad. Misery appetite sated, they can then get on with the important business of poking old school-chums and commenting on photos they've been tagged in ("omg I look well mingin', lol"). In Jade's case, once upon a time we might have sent flowers or donated to a charity to ensure that we felt involved in the family's grief. Now we can write on the virtual wall of a group that will be forgotten as soon as the next issue of 'Heat' hits the shelves and we are distracted by Jodie Marsh's plans to auction guided tours of her cervix in tribute. Bids start at a penny and she supplies the wellies.

Hooray for progress.