You’re Probably Not Sincere When Mourning Celebs on Facebook: Here’s Why

I never understood why people get so upset over the death of a celebrity. Especially when you most likely never knew or met the person at all. Yes, they probably influenced you in some way. I'm sure Mahatma Gandhi influenced you, but I doubt you give him much credit. If only he had a Twitter account.

Listen, I get it. It's sad. However, did you know that death isn't uncommon? In fact, statistics from ecology.com show that 151,600 people die each day. What does that mean to you or I? Probably nothing.

So why do we put these deaths on such a pedestal? Or here's an even better question: do we? Or are you just posting because you feel you should? Do you even mean it or was it just an impulse based on what everyone else was doing?

Does social media play a role in this? How on earth did we mourn celebrities before Facebook?

Megan Garber, a writer for The Atlantic, summed it up as turning your grief into content.

Think back to when Princess Diana died. Of course it was tragic and of course it made the news. I'd like to know what you did. If you weren't old enough I'd like you to ask someone who was what they did.

I'm sure they said, "Oh, that's terrible," and then went to work and possibly discussed it with some coworkers briefly. There wasn't this need for the public attention.

If given the choice to say quietly in your head, "That's really sad, he/she was such a big influence," or post it on Facebook and retweet it, what would you do?

According to the Times Union, a local young man recently died after battling an ongoing addiction to heroin. The young man's mother is using Facebook and local news to share his story.

You may know this person. If not, you may have experienced his struggles or know someone who has. You may have known his relatives but you certainly know his community.

Though George Michael's passing is sad, this one is closer to home.

In a local sense, what can we do to help our community? Can we educate ourselves and others on drugs in the Capital Region? Maybe we can help others we know who are struggling from addiction.

Let's take the time to mourn our neighbors and not figures.