The death question...who really reads the obituaries?

At 23 years old, you really don't think about your friends dying. In the past 3 years I have lost at least 10 people my age or younger. It is pretty sad to think about, but when you hear of people dying you already know the protocol and which black dress you are probably going to wear. Recently, my generation has used Facebook as a coping tool. We write on their wall and tell them how much me miss them, or we post old pictures of them and remember the good times. It used to be that people would write real letters to the family or make scrapbooks, instead of turning to Facebook. My generation only turns to Facebook, we don't read the paper or have any other way to know whether or not people have passed away.

When my grandfather passed away, I remember my grandmother calling the various family members, business partners, and friends to let them know of the passing of my grandfather. I thought it was cold how she was just calling everyone to let them know that he had died. I didn't think about how this was the only way some people would find out so that they could attend the funeral. Now we learn about these things through Facebook and Twitter.

Recently, I got a text from one of my really good friends asking what was wrong with someone because she had seen something on Facebook. Since I am an amazing Facebook stalker, I looked into the situation and found out about the tragic passing of a classmate. An event was made for a memorial and the only way people found out about it was from their Facebook.

What if you didn't have a Facebook for whatever reason. One of my friends and her boyfriend do not have a Facebook because it doesn't fit into their lifestyles. Her boyfriend missed a funeral of one of his good friends because no one thought to call him because he wasn't connected through Facebook. This prompted the conversation, "If you died, would your best friend know who they needed to call?"

I know this is kind of a dark topic, but it makes you think about the evolution of communication in the past 20 years. We have gone from phone calls and newspaper articles, to a site that can tell us everything about everyone.