Social media combined with technology has connected people all over the world. There are so many vehicles technology employs to marry very strange bedfellows. Face book and the numerous messenger applications have heralded the emergence of a new community.
The novelty of texting and messaging wore off with the popularity of the messenger applications and all the major technology players have launched one. Most popular in this neck of the woods are the blackberry and Whatsapp messenger applications. They cost next to nothing and with smart phones being more affordable, they are the platforms of communication for everyone.
Those who hop on the hysteria train should sober up and realise that life is terminal by nature; we are all dying and we will all die
My personal preference would be the blackberry as that affords one a higher level of privacy. I can determine who has access to me unlike the Whatsapp messenger app that gives everyone who gets my phone number unfettered access. My grouse however is not with the different applications but with the mass hysteria being fuelled by a generation of messenger and Facebook addicts.
There is an intrinsic need we all have to belong and be a part of something or even an ideal. Belonging is a basic ingredient of our identity and the numerous forms we all have to fill from time to time reinforces the point that to exist you must be classified and identified as something. Most of us are identified by our sex, origin, religion and even passions.
In the new age of terror, being an unknown quantity classifies one as suspect at best. So back to the topic at hand, mass hysteria was the only answer that came to mind when a lady on my Blackberry messenger list posed a question.
The background of the story is a tragedy of great proportions and it happened in the life of a young lady that I always found very humble, warm and reserved. She had walked into one of my stores in the company of a friend and told me about her business. She was an artist and I had been particularly taken by her own simplistic manner of application. Her work was tasteful and reserved just like her and I always remembered her fondly.
The tragedy I write about was not just what occurred in the past week but it had apparently began a few years back. It started with a pregnancy that resulted in a still birth and as painful as that must have been, it was followed a few years later by another pregnancy, thankfully a live birth but the child died two years later. I wasn't close enough to have known all of this and I probably wouldn't ever have if I had not seen her picture on a BB display with the dreaded R.I.P Status.
Hers was a face I knew so I had asked the person who posted it if it was the same girl I knew. She was at best late twenties or early thirties, so it didn't make sense. It was tragically very true, that shy, young, determined and very humble young lady had died. Her third try at procreation had cost her, her life. She died bringing a baby to life. Tragic; so very tragic!!
The little information I have conjures imageries of pain, disappointment and I must confess I was sad. No one deserves these repeated or should I say avalanche of heartbreaks this young girl dealt with before eventually paying the ultimate price to attain the joy of motherhood; a joy she will never enjoy. Now I am sure you are wondering what this tragic situation has to do with the topic of mass hysteria; let me tell you.
As is the case with social media, different pictures of the deceased showed up on a lot of displays and platforms and this is what prompted the question that inspired the column. A friend wondered why people that didn't even know the lady that died put up her pictures on their DP; was it just to spread gist? Or were they using a tragedy to belong? My answer is simple, mass hysteria!
So what is mass hysteria? Its an out pouring of emotion that is overly dramatic, insensitive and very transient. We cant blame technology and social media for it, its not new; social media just amplifies it. It is sometimes fuelled by fear or guilt. Most of us are shaken when we see others cut short and our fear for ourselves trigger vapour like emotions that may be initially hot but temporary. Its why most people won't honour an invitation to a birthday party but will show up for that person's funeral and display grief.
It is mourning without purpose as it does nothing for the living or the dead. The pain felt by friends and even family will eventually be classified as mass hysteria if it is not channelled productively. This particular tragedy has 2 main characters; the husband and the child. That poor baby who will never know her mother's love, her husband; shell shocked by a loss that he can't explain; becoming both mother and father in such sorrow. It is hypocritical to celebrate someone in death yet pay no heed to who and what they left behind. I saw a lot of it when my mother died; so called friends vied to be seen and be relevant in the proceedings.
They were no where to be found months after; 18 years later and they remain no where to be found. I hope the friends of the young lady who died realise that friendship transcends death and stay friends with that child. Those who hop on the hysteria train should sober up and realise that life is terminal by nature; we are all dying and we will all die. Any emotion which is not meaningful or even heart felt is hysteria. In this particular case it is hypocritical.
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