MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
floridatoday.com
Some question Twitter's military_mom post of son Bryson drowning
BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE
FLORIDA TODAY
MERRITT ISLAND — A child’s jumbled train tracks and a toppled plastic dinosaur lie on the floor by the Ross family’s Christmas tree, left behind by 2-year-old Bryson before he drowned in the family’s swimming pool Monday evening.
But it’s what has been happening on the Internet that has people talking about the tragedy and what is acceptable in today’s world of instant communication and tell-all messaging.
Bryson’s mother, Shellie Ross, posted on Twitter.com about his accident a half-hour after she called paramedics — and then was attacked by strangers nationwide in follow-up tweets and blogs for doing so.
Social media experts said Ross did nothing wrong. Her friends call the 37-year-old a caring, devoted mom.
Ross is aware of the controversy, but she declined Wednesday to be interviewed by FLORIDA TODAY, steering requests instead to friends who are monitoring the Web discussions. Those same friends advised her to stop reading the responses to her online postings. However, she was back on Twitter on Wednesday, thanking the Air Force for their “amazing” support and castigating two Twitter critics.
A post timeline
Ross is an established personality in the online world, with her own blog (Blog 4 Mom - Part 1) and Twitter account (Shellie Ross (Military_Mom) on Twitter). More than 5,300 people follow her Twitter posts.
On Monday, as usual, she tweeted throughout the day about what was going on in her life, including decorating the family’s Christmas tree with breakable ornaments — despite having a 2-year-old in a house they had just moved into on Dec. 1. At 5:22 p.m. Monday, she tweeted about the rare fog that rolled over Brevard County as she worked in her chicken coop.
According to 9-1-1 records, a phone call from Ross came in at 5:38 p.m. that she had found her son at the bottom of their screened-in swimming pool.
She posted a tweet at 6:12 p.m.: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”
That was followed five hours later with “remembering my million dollar baby” and photos of a smiling Bryson. Those posts and pictures have since been removed from her Twitter account. There is nothing in Ross’ posts that indicate she was on the computer or cell phone at the time of the tragedy.
It is unclear what Ross was doing between 5:22 p.m., when she tweeted, and 5:38 p.m., when she called for help.
In a tweet posted Tuesday morning, Ross wrote, “I was outside with him and it took two seconds for him to slip away.”
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office called it an accidental drowning.
Grief gone viral
Once Ross posted her call for prayers, Twitter users started weighing in with words of support, as well as comments and questions about the boy’s fate and Ross’ Twittering to friends, family and strangers at such a difficult time.
But social media specialists said criticism of Ross is unfair, noting that she’s simply tech-savvy and using a familiar way to communicate. They added that it’s inappropriate to question her actions at such a horrible time in her life.
Madison McGraw, who does not know the Ross family, tweeted about the incident and also posted an item on her blog, at MADISON MCGRAW, titled “Mom Tweets While Son Drowns.”
“The person that I have compassion for is her son — who might still be alive if (Ross) interacted with her son like she interacted with people on Twitter,” McGraw wrote. “To me, that shows the repercussions for social media gone awry.”
McGraw’s Twitter account lists her hometown as being Bucks County, Pa., which is near Allentown.
Asked by FLORIDA TODAY if she thought it was appropriate to attack a woman she doesn’t know who just lost her son, McGraw responded, “If she didn’t want questions raised at such a painful time, perhaps she shouldn’t have tweeted immediately after her child died. A child is dead because (of) his mother’s infatuation with Twitter.”
Blogging ‘community’
Unlike McGraw, Shari Keating knows Ross and considers her a friend. They met via blog and social networking conferences. Keating spent Monday night at the Ross home comforting her before Ross’ husband, Steve, arrived from out of town. Steve Ross is a sergeant stationed at Patrick Air Force Base.
Keating called Ross a fantastic mother who is devoted to her children. Ross has two other sons, 18-year-old Cody and 11-year-old Kris.
“To judge her, I think, is appalling,” Keating said. “You have to realize that blogging is a community.”
Peter Post, great-grandson of etiquette expert Emily Post and director of the Vermont-based Emily Post Institute, agreed. He called McGraw’s comment “horrendous in its implications.”
“I’m not sure this is the appropriate time or place to be chastising anyone,” he said.
Post said that Ross asking her Twitter followers to pray was akin to asking a congregation to pray.
The problem with modern communication mechanisms such as Twitter, he said, is that they are so fast and easy. “We put things out there and wish we hadn’t,” Post said. “It’s not just your friends who see it: It’s the whole world, potentially.”
For now, the Ross family simply wants to be left alone to grieve.
On Wednesday morning, Ross brought in a Federal Express package from her front porch. Inside was a Christmas present for Bryson that she tucked away in a closet. Her eyes rimmed red from crying, she declined to comment.
Some question Twitter's military_mom post of son Bryson drowning
BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE
FLORIDA TODAY
MERRITT ISLAND — A child’s jumbled train tracks and a toppled plastic dinosaur lie on the floor by the Ross family’s Christmas tree, left behind by 2-year-old Bryson before he drowned in the family’s swimming pool Monday evening.
But it’s what has been happening on the Internet that has people talking about the tragedy and what is acceptable in today’s world of instant communication and tell-all messaging.
Bryson’s mother, Shellie Ross, posted on Twitter.com about his accident a half-hour after she called paramedics — and then was attacked by strangers nationwide in follow-up tweets and blogs for doing so.
Social media experts said Ross did nothing wrong. Her friends call the 37-year-old a caring, devoted mom.
Ross is aware of the controversy, but she declined Wednesday to be interviewed by FLORIDA TODAY, steering requests instead to friends who are monitoring the Web discussions. Those same friends advised her to stop reading the responses to her online postings. However, she was back on Twitter on Wednesday, thanking the Air Force for their “amazing” support and castigating two Twitter critics.
A post timeline
Ross is an established personality in the online world, with her own blog (Blog 4 Mom - Part 1) and Twitter account (Shellie Ross (Military_Mom) on Twitter). More than 5,300 people follow her Twitter posts.
On Monday, as usual, she tweeted throughout the day about what was going on in her life, including decorating the family’s Christmas tree with breakable ornaments — despite having a 2-year-old in a house they had just moved into on Dec. 1. At 5:22 p.m. Monday, she tweeted about the rare fog that rolled over Brevard County as she worked in her chicken coop.
According to 9-1-1 records, a phone call from Ross came in at 5:38 p.m. that she had found her son at the bottom of their screened-in swimming pool.
She posted a tweet at 6:12 p.m.: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”
That was followed five hours later with “remembering my million dollar baby” and photos of a smiling Bryson. Those posts and pictures have since been removed from her Twitter account. There is nothing in Ross’ posts that indicate she was on the computer or cell phone at the time of the tragedy.
It is unclear what Ross was doing between 5:22 p.m., when she tweeted, and 5:38 p.m., when she called for help.
In a tweet posted Tuesday morning, Ross wrote, “I was outside with him and it took two seconds for him to slip away.”
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office called it an accidental drowning.
Grief gone viral
Once Ross posted her call for prayers, Twitter users started weighing in with words of support, as well as comments and questions about the boy’s fate and Ross’ Twittering to friends, family and strangers at such a difficult time.
But social media specialists said criticism of Ross is unfair, noting that she’s simply tech-savvy and using a familiar way to communicate. They added that it’s inappropriate to question her actions at such a horrible time in her life.
Madison McGraw, who does not know the Ross family, tweeted about the incident and also posted an item on her blog, at MADISON MCGRAW, titled “Mom Tweets While Son Drowns.”
“The person that I have compassion for is her son — who might still be alive if (Ross) interacted with her son like she interacted with people on Twitter,” McGraw wrote. “To me, that shows the repercussions for social media gone awry.”
McGraw’s Twitter account lists her hometown as being Bucks County, Pa., which is near Allentown.
Asked by FLORIDA TODAY if she thought it was appropriate to attack a woman she doesn’t know who just lost her son, McGraw responded, “If she didn’t want questions raised at such a painful time, perhaps she shouldn’t have tweeted immediately after her child died. A child is dead because (of) his mother’s infatuation with Twitter.”
Blogging ‘community’
Unlike McGraw, Shari Keating knows Ross and considers her a friend. They met via blog and social networking conferences. Keating spent Monday night at the Ross home comforting her before Ross’ husband, Steve, arrived from out of town. Steve Ross is a sergeant stationed at Patrick Air Force Base.
Keating called Ross a fantastic mother who is devoted to her children. Ross has two other sons, 18-year-old Cody and 11-year-old Kris.
“To judge her, I think, is appalling,” Keating said. “You have to realize that blogging is a community.”
Peter Post, great-grandson of etiquette expert Emily Post and director of the Vermont-based Emily Post Institute, agreed. He called McGraw’s comment “horrendous in its implications.”
“I’m not sure this is the appropriate time or place to be chastising anyone,” he said.
Post said that Ross asking her Twitter followers to pray was akin to asking a congregation to pray.
The problem with modern communication mechanisms such as Twitter, he said, is that they are so fast and easy. “We put things out there and wish we hadn’t,” Post said. “It’s not just your friends who see it: It’s the whole world, potentially.”
For now, the Ross family simply wants to be left alone to grieve.
On Wednesday morning, Ross brought in a Federal Express package from her front porch. Inside was a Christmas present for Bryson that she tucked away in a closet. Her eyes rimmed red from crying, she declined to comment.
