Category: Social Media

Today was an emotional and strange day in the world of celebrity and news. We lost not one but two legends. One was tragic yet somewhat expected and one was seemingly out of the blue, although many people said they weren’t surprised by it.

The craziest thing about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and even Ed McMahon a few days ago is that I found out about all three of them through twitter. Not once when the stories were unfolding did I turn on the radio or the TV, and for the most part I didn’t even visit any major news sites. I literally followed the entire thing on twitter, noting who got the stories first and who was most accurate. Breaking News On (@breakingnewson) seemed pretty quick with updates and the celebrity bloggers and other celeb enthusiasts were quick with Retweets, updates and opinions. It was a true testament to the changing times that I essentially needed nothing more than my phone and twitter app to be completed up to date on Michael Jackson’s death. I saw a quick tweet at the end of my work date that mentioned him being taken to the ER but didn’t pay much attention to it in the midst of the Farrah mourning. Then, on my hour train ride, I settled in and checked my twitter stream, only to find out that history was being made. I teared up a few times from a combination of the obvious sadness of the death of an undisputed music legend, and also a bit from the impact of just getting all this info and reading all these people’s heartfelt messages all while sitting silently on the LIRR. At one point as I was deep in twitterland, I considered announcing MJ’s passing to my train car, or striking up a convo with the sleeping businessman next to me, but decided that would be too odd. It just felt so weird to be finding out such dramatic news while the people around me seemed to be clueless (at least those not on their phones). I also found it fascinating that TMZ legitimately broke the story first, followed by other celeb bloggers and less credible sources, and further more, they were totally on point. Next came the LA Times and finally after a few others came CNN. A lot has changed from the days of tuning into CNN because it was the ONLY source of 24 hour news around…

I just wanted to write something today to honor the deaths of three people who were legends in their own way. Putting all personal stuff aside (personal stuff which everyone has in one way or another) Michael Jackson was one of the greatest entertainers our generation has ever seen. Ed McMahon was a household name that everyone loved. Farrah Fawcett was the embodiment of sexy and in her final days became an inspiration to us all with her brave battle. Although I never met any of these people and do feel that sometimes it’s crazy the way the public obsesses about celebs that they know nothing about personally, I think that these three people clearly impacted the world, and for that, they deserve our blessings. My thoughts and prayers are with their loved ones tonight.

On a completely unrelated note, I am off to Fire Island again this weekend, and plan on writing an epic post (or maybe event multiple posts) on my experiences there so far. I know, I’m a slacker!