Fleur De Los

Everyone’s got an opinion and rushing to see who can write or blog or text or tweet it the fastest.

“Rest in Peace.” “A legend.” “He get’s a pass for all the craziness.” “…wow… :,-(”

We’re all sad, we’re all mourning and we all put on a CD and sing “Thriller” and “Bad” and “Billie Jean” like we’re kids again and there was no reason to fear him. Oh yea, he went crazy. But that doesn’t matter for a moment. Then we’re all rushing to see who can make the funnies joke or snark or message board post or photoshop.

“The real Michael died 15 years ago.” “Finally, are playgrounds are safe.” “I hope he doesn’t come back as a Thriller zombie.” “[Photoshop of Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett as Thriller zombies]”

I’m sure the McMahon and Fawcett deaths have rocked their fans and all the people that came of age watching Johnny Carson and “Charlie’s Angles.” But they’re not Facebooking or Tweeting their emotions, if at all (unless it’s to talk about Michael, too, and the whole “dead celebrities come in threes” thing).

Does anyone remember what is was like before the Web became everyone’s streetcorner; everyone’s way of speaking their minds and bearing their emotions? I seem to remember hearing about famous people dying on the news or on the radio on the way to school and I’d have to actually talk to people in person or on the phone.

Nowadays, TMZ (!) breaks news and it’s followed by a rush of electronic emotion. Static and distant yet instantaneous and sincere. We open up to the world around us because we see everyone doing it too. One use to measure a person’s worth by the amount of people that showed up to his funeral. Now it’s the number of tweets about them within an hour of their death.