On Robin Williams and Technological Information

The tragic news of the passing of Robin Williams shot across the country and the world like a comet last night.  There are many things to say in a situation like this, from praising the man who made you laugh until you cried (NSFW, pretty much everything)...

To the man that made a hard soul like Matt Damon's Will Hunting actually cry (NSFW, language)...

Williams touched a lot of souls, and a lot of hearts, and a lot of funny bones in his too short 63 years on this planet.  "On this planet" is a nice way of mentioning Williams, who got his break as Mork from Ork, on the show "Mork and Mindy", a performance that was literally from another world.

I heard about the news in a text message from my sister.  From there, I immediately went to Twitter, Facebook, Google and everywhere else to get my own confirmation, which was pretty much unnecessary since, if you hear it enough times on FB and Twitter, it has to be true.



From there, the night was filled with moving tweets, posts and blog entries, highlighting some of the more legendary performances from Williams' career.  It dawned on me that this is how we, as a society, not only receive tragic and sad (and sometimes uplifting and wonderful) news, but it is also how we react.  We tweet.  We post.  We watch embedded videos on blogs.  We head over to Netflix and stream our favorites.  We (begrudgingly) head over to BuzzfeeD to see a slideshow or two.

This is not bad, it's just the inevitable movement of things.  I learned about many important recent events - Gabrielle Giffords being shot, Whitney Houston's death, and that I should turn on my TV on the evening of May 2nd, 2011 for a big announcement from the President - as many of you probably did: on Twitter.  I reacted on Twitter.  And Facebook.  And on TV.  And the Internet.

The cynic may argue that this makes the grieving process impersonal, and even harsh.  I'd agree to a point, since we're relaying thoughts through the electronic versions of ourselves.  But the benefits are many.  If you want to watch Williams make an entire class of preppy gentlemen rise as one, you no longer need to seek out your video collection and hope your DVD player works.  You can see it on YouTube.  If you want to gauge reaction from the world, that's what Twitter is for.  Impersonal, maybe.  Cathartic, very much so.

Technology isn't bad, especially after events like the passing of a beloved actor.  It helps the grieving process even more.  I'll miss Robin Williams as an actor, but I'm a bit happier knowing that I can spend the balance of my Tuesday watching my favorite clips of his craft.