I have just lived through a bizarre experience, watching news of Michael Jackson’s death propogate across the Internet in real time.

I saw the news first on Twitter, where microbloggers tweeted and retweeted the news that had been broken on the TMZ website. Whilst traditional media, such as BBC News 24, tried to confirm the story, I was able to watch it metamorphose into something else time and again.

As I write this, the news has just broken on the BBC, the first news source that I trust enough to believe it. I have also had four messages that he is not dead, two that he is in a coma, one that it is a publicity stunt, and eight jokes (none funny). Some people praise, others decry. I am sorry to say, a few celebrate in a manner that tries to disguise ghoulish glee for a moral compass.

A friend has just IM-ed me to tell me that the Wikipedia page has already been updated. I have no doubt the eBay auctions are already being set up to auction off tickets to concerts that will now never play.

All of which makes me wonder something …  is this the way that the worth of our lives will be measured in future; not by the deeds we do, but by the tweets and blog posts about us when we are gone?

I have 296 Facebook friends. I worry that this is not enough of a legacy.

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