Is grief really cheapened by social media?
Journalist Megan Garber takes on the "grief police" and argues that communal mourning does have public value.
Favourite quotes on Facebook. Tiny tributes on Twitter. Iconic images on Instagram. After a month of celebrity deaths, fans have flooded social media with messages of mourning.
One U.K. journalist took on the "Bowie blubberers" as being "deeply insincere" — but journalist Megan Garber doesn't see it that way. She argues that "any gesture of empathy is fundamentally a good thing".
Garber joins guest host Tom Power to discuss the nuances of grief expressed online, the historical roots of communal mourning, and why social media tributes may be bolstering for the culture at large.
WEB EXTRA | Here's Megan Garber's article Enter the Grief Police. Plus, Garber twice referenced The Long Goodbye by Meghan O'Rourke. Here's the GoodReads summary. And an excerpt, published in the New Yorker in 2011.