The ways people grieve differ from one culture to another. The way we grieve today may be different than the way our forefather dealt with grief.
In times of death and tragedy are people reaching out to social media for solace and comfort? Is the social media like Twitter and Face book where we go to find a way to express our grief and find comfort?
Within our modern media, we have the ability to read and see pictures about a tragedy or death within hours of the tragedy happening.
People are able to post their thoughts, and express their feelings freely in this context. We make connections with complete strangers who have had similar life changing events happen to them.
Grief needs to be expressed and our young people especially are turning to this form of social media for comfort and connection. Blogs, Twitter and Face book have indeed put on a new meaning in how they express their grief. They are searching for information about the death, trying to keep in touch with family and friends and drawing support from each other. This new way of communication has placed information at our fingertips at the click of a keyboard.
We see our social media being used to create memorials in memory of someone. We want to keep the memory of our loved ones alive in our hearts. Does it provide for a "Community of Remembrances" and a "Community for Mourning" for us?
It is said that about 90 per cent of our youth use social media as the means to communicate with each other. Face book has something like 400 million active users and for most, they use this media at least one hour per day, and for some they spend much more time on these media sites.
Growing up in my generation, we were shielded from some of the harsh realities of life and death. This has indeed changed over the last few years. Parents and families no longer have the opportunity to choose how they will tell their children about a tragedy or the death of their loved one. Often when something like this does happen in our community the children are the first to hear about it because of the frequent use social medias.
In working with children, we see that children are in a tender stage of life. They are still emotionally immature and need to take a break from their grief. Exposure to this constant media can be too over whelming and does not allow a child to take a break from their grief. When children are compulsively checking their cell phone, sending messages, and conversations are always centered around the loss or tragedy, a child does not get a break from their grief, and this at times can become more than they can handle.
Parents need to take an active role in monitoring their children's activity around social media. Encouraging children to be active outdoors, in sports, and organized activities allows them to focus on other than the grief that is in our midst.
Children, like adults often will benefit from professional support in time of loss and tragedy. Often schools will provide professional supports shortly after a death of a class mate or community tragedy, but parent's need to remain vigilant for signs that would indicate that their child needs more support in days to come.
Comfort comes from knowing that people have made the same journey. And solace comes from understanding how others have learned to sing again ~ Helen Steiner Rice
Margaret Anne Yost nursed for 35 years and journeyed with many clients who were dying. I completed two units of Clinical Pastoral Education at the Regina General Hospital. Returning back to school I completed classes from the Red River College in the areas of Gerontology, Bereavement, Death and Dying.
