Grieving in the ‘iGen’ era
The social habits of the ‘iGen’ are changing the way we interact globally in a dramatic fashion, including how we grieve. Following the Virginia Tech tragedy this week, people began creating online tributes to the innocent lives lost. Myspace, YouTube and Facebook have thousands of postings dedicated to the victims. The Facebook tribute has over 360,000 members and there are thousands of YouTube videos with hundreds of thousands of views.
It appears that going online to share memories is becoming a new tradition. Here is some recent press covering this phenomenon:
• Social Media, Technology and Tragedy: On YouTube, Facebook, MySpace Today We Are All Hokies
• VTech Victim Memorials on Facebook
• A virtual hand of sympathy
• Virginia Tech Shootings: Role of Social Media & Search in Journalism
• Sharing grief, digitally
20 Apr
