After a death in my family, I now understand why we use social media to mourn

This month, after 102 years of approaching every day with a spitfire personality and sticking out her tongue for every picture, my beloved great-grandmother passed away.

She was the matriarch of my mother's family, and her absence was felt immediately. I was talking to her on the phone one day, and the next she was gone. It was a quick and relatively painless death, unlike the protracted battles with dementia, cancer, and Alzheimer's other family members have experienced.   

Almost immediately after I received word of her passing, I was faced with a distinctly modern dilemma: to post or not to post on social media? Was it appropriate to acknowledge my loss publcily, broadcasting grief to my followers for validation, or let the personal tragedy fly under the radar, disappearing from various networks while I handled the mourning process in my own way?     Read more...