The Mourning Bandwagon

2016 hasn't been a good year for big names. We have seen the passing of talents such as David Bowie, Alan Rickman and today, George "the fifth Beatle" Martin. Coincidentally, we have also seen a rise in their respective fan bases. 

It is understandable that any sort of media coverage of the death of a public figure will remind us of what they achieved in their life. We may reminisce by listening to their music, reading their books or researching their legacy. It is sad and it is appropriate to mourn these figures by appreciating the ways that they may have touched peoples' lives. Moreso if you consider yourself to be a particularly invested admirer of theirs. If this is the case, you may feel it appropriate to express your sadness and condolences on a platform where you can communicate your thoughts and feelings to others; a platform such as social media.

It is almost expected that die hard fans of a well known artist to convey their emotions in a facebook status or, if they feel they cannot succinctly articulate themselves, through sharing articles about the loss. However, I believe that it is somewhat inappropriate and frankly annoying when someone suddenly seems to think they are a fan of that David Bowie guy (is it pronounced 'Bo-wie' or 'Bow-ie'?) because they heard a cover of the song Changes on the Shrek soundtrack. It is as if people recognise that they have missed out on being involved in the fan base of a talented person and once they realise that they cannot be part of it, they will jump on the mourning bandwagon. 

This was brought to my attention today after the announcement of the passing of George Martin. Twitter was up in arms, for it means that his readers will not find out the ending of the Game of Thrones series. Tweets were sent out by people expressing their condolences to the family of George RR Martin, stating that it is a travesty that the sixth book in the GoT series will remain unfinished. Unfortunately for them (but not for him!), those people have not realised that they are grieving over a man who has not actually died. They will should be gleeful to find that they have the wrong George Martin, and the Game of Thrones novelist is still alive and fully intending on finishing the series! And what's more, is that other Twitter users seem to think that the news of the death of George Martin of the Beatles is old news- didn't he die like ten years go? No, that would be George Harrison... 

I think that this proves my point- that people are so keen to jump on the bandwagon of mourning the dead famous person, that they don't even fact check if what they are saying is correct. This even goes to the extent that people mourn someone who is still alive. C'mon people, fact checking saves lives!