On Sunday, I posted the following on Facebook:
I am sitting at JFK airport waiting to board my flight to South Carolina for my uncle’s memorial service. In the cab, I posted something to Instagram about this unexpected trip and then I deleted my post because it seemed strange/odd to be mixing something as complex and private as death with something as light and airy as social media.
But now here I am wondering what you all think about using Facebook & its brethren media to communicate/process these difficult things. I’m well aware that this is yet another such post, but now I am asking a question and it feels like an important one. What do you all think about posting news about loss here or on other social media sites? Clearly, we all use it to post news about life – new babies, etc, but is the flip-side a bit different somehow? Really curious about what you guys think.
Anyway, I’m running off to a really cool roundtable at the Huffington Post, but thought this was interesting enough, and important enough, to share here. To see the slew of thoughtful comments that came in on FB, click here.
How much do you personally share or not share on social media? Are there times when you see a post that strikes you as overly personal and it makes you cringe? Does posting about hard stuff help you process it and feel seen? In your mind, are there rules (or should there be rules) about what to post and what not to post in the ether?