Submitted by Rona_Gura on

A Social Media Confession

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Lifestyle

A story that I read in the news this week really upset and concerned me. A Florida man, Derek Melina, confessed to killing his wife and posted a picture of her body on his Facebook feed. He then turned himself into police.

And although his acts are troubling by themselves, what happened next is what was truly disconcerting to me. While countless  people expressed their outrage and shock at the picture, scores of people shared the picture on their own feed. In other words, numerous people felt it was appropriate to repost the gruesome picture on their own Facebook feed.

Facebook ultimately removed Melina’s posts and the picture of his wife. But one has to wonder what the actions of those who reposted the picture says about human nature and social media. Have we become so desensitized to what we post on Facebook that nothing is off limits, not even a photograph of a gruesome murder scene?

Comments

Fred Klein

The internet is like the wild wild west
Riva Schwartz

Throughout history, people have displayed dead, murdered bodies, (think crucifixion, heads on stakes, public hangings,etc). I suppose man has not yet "civilized out" this aspect of our fascination with the gruesome
Corey Bearak

Many folks do not get how far sharing on FB extends, as opposed to emailing to a few, and even there many of us have endured those forwarded emails.

Submitted by VikramRajan on Mon, 08/12/2013 - 01:57

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Vik Rajan

umm, I don't think his actions (on or off Facebook) should be taken as normal, mainstream or what the majority of us would do.

Submitted by NULL (not verified) on Mon, 08/12/2013 - 07:07

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Very few people understand just how damaging posting to social media is...and just like smoking, it'll take 15-20 years to really devastate lives.

But when it does...oh boy.

- Raj
Benjamin Geizhals

I am not on Facebook. However, I find failures of self-editing all over the internet and social media. I am especially troubled by the "need to share" overtaking common sense.

Submitted by Erik_Scheibe on Mon, 08/12/2013 - 15:16

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Erik Scheibe

Things continue to get crazier and crazier.

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