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Is Tweeting an acceptable form of expressing condolences?
Posted by rivalblogger on December 31, 2009
I was just reading this story on CNN about the death of “MythBusters” contributor Erik Gates who died in a fall recently.
The story went on to say that on its Twitter page the MB team tweeted: “Team MB wishes to express our deepest sympathies on the passing of our beloved rocket expert, Erik,” followed by “You were an honorary MythBuster and will be sorely missed”
I was just scrolling down through the comments under the article and it was interesting (and a little funny) to read some of the comments about the appropriateness of using Twitter to express condolences to the family. Somebody pointed out that Ashton Kutcher had used Twitter to express his sympathy to the family of Brittany Murphy who also died recently.
This comment was a pearler for me… but maybe it has some relevance:
Sending condolences via twitter is like proposing to your girlfriend via an answering machine message – “manners” is 100% right.
Every step we take forward in technology is sometimes accompanied by a step backward in common human respect.
January 4th, 2010 at 4:48 am
If the person was an avid twitter it would probably be expected of you to retweet others who have twittered their condolonces as well.