Or so said the headlines that made national news. In truth mom tweeted after son drowned, but that doesn’t carry the same weight as the previous headline.
In Dec of 2009, popular mommy blogger Shellie Ross along with her older (11) son were cleaning out their chicken coop when she asked her older son to turn off the hose running to the screened in pool. After she finished cleaning she went looking for her sons when she saw her son floating in the pool, and then she performed CPR until the medics arrived. He was pronounced dead later at the hospital.
Timeline of events
• 5:22 pm Tweets ‘Fog rolling in thick scared the birds back in the coop
• 5:23 pm Call to 911 from her older son reporting finding toddler floating in pool
• 5:38 pm ambulance arrives and finds toddler in cardiac arrest
• 6:12 pm Shellie Ross tweets “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old feel in pool”
Almost immediately Shellie was bombarded with tweets of concerns, questions, sympathies and skepticism. While her friends (community) went into immediate action organizing pray groups and donations, others used to moment to bash her and call her a horrible mother. Many people said if she hadn’t been tweeting and had been watching her son, he would still be alive. Now at the time of her last tweet she didn't say her son was indeed dead. Ross tweeted at 11:08 “Remembering my million dollar baby” and a link to a photo.
Many people wanted proof and believed Ross was lying and trying to get attention. The most vocal was Madison McGraw who went so far as to call the police and local newspapers near Ross (McGraw is from Pennsylvania) pretending to be Ross looking for verification. McGraw then blogged about how if Ross hadn’t been tweeting her son would still be alive. Now Ross’s followers and friends came to her defense and said she was a good mother and friend and she didn’t deserve to be treated this way. Ross herself told ABC News that “Nobody has a right to question” why she tweeted, and she didn’t “tweet by tweet the accident.” McGraw told ABC News that she received death threats for questioning the validity of Ross’s tweets.
Her friends, many of them she had known from meeting on twitter and through her blogs, came to her defense and said that it wasn’t shocking that Ross tweeted the news, that it was much easier to tweet, and it “immediately set into place a support system.”
This all poses the larger question “Was this an appropriate time to be using social media?”
I mean there is the woman who tweeted that she has a miscarriage while in a meeting, the girl who tweeted Demi Moore that she about to commit suicide (to which Demi successfully talked her down, then got her help), and there is the guy who streamed his suicide on the internet (to which no one thought to call the cops till it was over).
As social media becomes infused into our lives at what point do we step in and say this is too much? And what about the next generation who has always had social media?
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It's amazing that something like this which doesn't seem like it could be blown out of proportion was so much so. I'm sure that woman's pain was thrown all about because so many people still don't understand Twitter, or they feel that there is something innately wrong with constant updates. It's too bad so much of the media is just looking for the next big story instead of actually understanding what the facts are.
ReplyDeleteTwitter seems can allow us be reached anytime and everywhere. For me, I'm curious that whether there is a "Twitter addiction" exists? People need to post their behaviors and thoughts all the time on Twitters or they will feel something miss in their life. And another question is how long will this Twitter fever last? And after Twitter, what new things will we addict to?
ReplyDeleteI don't think there really is a twitter addition. I know I say I'm addicted to Twitter but if I wanted too, I could stop. But that's just me. I think Twitter will be around till the next Web 2.0 technology hits the market then we will leave twitter for the next best thing. I think Twitter will be around for a while because their potential for growth hasn't even peaked yet.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that she was in the wrong for posting about her son's drowning on Twitter. Social media does have an interesting way of bringing people together, and what better way to rally the troops towards prayer than to tweet something?
ReplyDeleteRecently, I found out that a friend of mine's uncle was sick and subsequently died because of her Facebook updates. I think it's just a sign of the times.. it's the fastest way to alert one's social network...
Once you explained the story, I completely felt for the mother. In my weekend elevator experience I first called the police, then master control to alert other people in the building of the situation. When I knew there was nothing further I could do I texted my mother, Mike and Kosia to let them know the situation. I reached out via technology for support. That is all this mother did in her situation as well.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree MCK it's just a sign of the times. I found out the a friend of mine's mom is died of Twitter, we offered support and condolences and then called of courses. I think social media is just an immediate way to release information.
ReplyDelete@J Street I'm glad you still had service in the elevator to be able to that.