Green Room - Week 13 - Day 2

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

If you watched Survivor: Blood vs Water, you would probably remember Caleb Bankston, the quiet hard-working fiance of the "controversial" Colton Cumbie.

Caleb died yesterday in a work-related accident.

I found out due to social media. Not only am I in a Survivor-related FB group, but both Colton and Caleb had friended me over there.

I definitely don't actually *know* them, but we've interacted a little bit.

It's funny the connections social media creates.

In a conversation about internet stories that go viral and potential misuse of the medium for fraud, someone brought up the case of the woman in Wal-Mart who said that some guy assaulted her son for wearing a pink headband.

What that person didn't realize is that the mother in question is a former Idol contestant, and on my friends list. They weren't trying to be mean or anything, they were just mentioning the story, from the angle that they had been presented about it.

I've seen people on my feed post something that was heartfelt and well meaning - had it go viral - and seen other people on my feed tear it apart for everything that it "got wrong"/"how misguided" it was (etc).

I've seen actual articles from online friends appear in the feeds of folks who have no idea who they are and see them ripped apart.

Sometimes I comment. Often I don't get there soon enough to comment, and by the time I see it, the conversation has moved on to something else. I tend to feel guilty when that happens, because maybe I *should* have said something, even in the middle of their echo-chamber, to remind them that "Hey, you're actually talking about a PERSON". But in most cases, I doubt it would make much of an impression.

Over the last week, I saw someone post about how they knew that the "blue-eyed criminal" and posted his picture, about a day or so before the rest of the internet exploded with pictures and memes of him.

Everyone online is connected to someone else. That someone else - they might be someone you KNOW. Just remember that.

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Oh, and your topic thread is up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/751386.html and there's also a Work Room: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/751722.html I'm pretty sure those two things are connected!