L

It must have been last week that my Baby told me that a member of one of the forums he frequents had killed himself. No one knew what had really happened at first. A friend of the deceased notified the forum of the suicide but it seemed like it could have been a joke. The site administrator soon made the news official and created a ban on derogatory comments about that member. People posted sympathetic messages and photo tributes in memory of the person they knew only through their network. I had always thought of that form of communication as shallow and impersonal and now I don't know what to think. I have never felt a connection with anyone I've met online but this sort of relationship clearly means something to the people who have grown accustomed to it. It's clear if only in that the member's friend felt it necessary to notify the other forum members. What I wonder is whether anyone from the forum was truly saddened by this loss or if it was just another topic to create posts about.