Tweet away the sadness

I was listening to what? NPR as usual, because that is my favorite thing in the car or at a desk to mildly distract my from what I'm supposed to be doing. If they had stock I would buy some, instead I just give them my credit card number to keep my conscience clean.

Anyway there was an interesting story about how a journalist whose mother was dying, he's an NPR regular on the network. He tweeted in real time about the experience of being by her side, basically waiting for her to pass.

I know I text as a nervous twitch when real life is a bit uncomfortable, know I text my boyfriend and sister a lot more when I am under stress or in a stressful situation. "At a job interview. Argh hate waiting." "Boss just yelled at me OMG" Those texts are private however, well I hope they are ;) because I've been hearing a good deal about the gvt monitoring our phones lol

In any event I was thinking how twitter or a blog can feel cathartic like writing a journal. You don't see the people who are, you don't ever have to look them in the eye. They do however leave comments which is kind of like your journal answering back to you, but its not because they are real people. I knew an undergrad a few years ago who posted a play by play or an affair she had with a married man. She was offended that his wife found the blog, and claimed it was an intrusion of her privacy for the wife to read it. There were assumed nicknames, but it was a public blog for all to see. It is not a journal and it is NOT private. Are some people confused about that?

I just wonder about the role of privacy and how our views of it are changing the more our every thought can be published. It would not seem strange to read about that man's dying mother in a memoir, but somehow the play by play on Twitter feels intrusive to me. It seems to have helped him cope with a sad event, I don't mean to be judgmental, there is nothing necessarily wrong with it. Its just that I wonder where the personal line is and how t is being redefined by these tools?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/30/206987575/Scott-Simon-On-Sharing-His-Mothers-Final-Moments-On-Twitter