People have always held a fascination for death – think of
your grandmother reading the obituaries every day or people rubbernecking at
the scene of an accident. However, never
more than today have people’s lives been more accessible to us to
investigate. No longer is it kept to the
wake for people to reminisce with their friends and family about the last days
and minutes of their loved one’s life.
At the click of a button or the swipe of a screen we can see
everything that the person has done up to the point at which they died. Social media displays photos and messages to
and from the person and may even include photos related to their death.
This was never as apparent as this week with the death of
Paul Walker. Huffpost today published
photos of the car after the crash m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4372431?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
and we previously saw photos of Paul standing at the Porsche moments before he
left in it with his friend Roger Rodas.
Doing a quick search of Twitter for ‘Paul Walker’, his profile appears
at the top of the results.
It’s almost eerie that we can view photos and opinions from
people posthumously, especially in an edited fashion as appears on Facebook. Who doesn't examine every photo they’re
tagged in online to ensure they appear in the best light to all of their
contacts online? People often ‘check in’
to venues before they order a drink or search for their friends! In this way, the life we create for ourselves
on Facebook is often the very best of us, our happy memories and pretty
pictures. That’s what makes viewing a
profile posthumously so strange. It’s
almost as if the person is still there, alive, happy, smiling and enjoying
life. In some regards, it’s nice to see
people at their best, but does it make it all the harder to let go?
However, nothing could have prepared us for the case of the
twenty-three year old charged with the violent murder of a seventeen year old
girl in the UK, of which he produced his own photographic evidence -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516804/Georgia-Williams-murder-Jamie-Reynolds-admits-killing-girl-strangling-her.html. Having wooed her and been rebuked, he then
lured her to his home with the promise of producing pictures for a modelling portfolio. After taking some photos, he then strangled
her and continued to take photos post-mortem.
He has pleaded guilty to the murder, saving the family the distress of a
trial, and the post-mortem photos taken by the accused will be shown only to
the judge when he hands down the sentence.
How has social media and information accessibility
influenced the way in which we conduct ourselves when in public? The case in Slane on 20 August really proved
how easily photos are shared in social media, a point reiterated by the fifth grade
teacher who has posted a photo on Facebook to prove how quickly photos are
shared and manipulated - http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-fifth-grade-teacher-wanted-to-show-her-students-what-happe.
Inappropriate and violent behaviour has been around since
the beginning of humanity, but social media has made it easier for like-minded
people to connect and share sometimes dangerous images and ideas that would
otherwise only be shared if they met in person.
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