Twitter and the tragic death of Tom Maynard

Yesterday saw the announcement of the death of Tom Maynard. A “prodigiously talented young” cricketer according to the chairman of Surrey County Cricket Club, Tom had already competed for England Lions and was a regular performer for his county Surrey. By all accounts, a glittering career lay ahead of him.

The sense of waste and loss that accompanies the death of someone so young was palpable in media coverage of his death. As was the outpouring of grief from friends, family and those within cricket. Cricketing luminaries like Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan tweeted their condolences to Tom’s family, and Tom’s girlfriend posted a heartfelt Tweet on his passing.

For some time people in the communications industry have looked at Twitter and struggled with the question ‘What does it do?’. Is it a fad, a glorified news aggregator, a temporary realignment in how ‘news’ is delivered, or a fundamental shift in the way we communicate with one another?

Tom’s death highlights both the importance of social media like Twitter and its huge, and growing, influence on the way we communicate. Whether Twitter has a permanent place in British life remains to be seen, but it has become far more than a cold, hard provider of information or news. It is also a deliverer of emotional responses; sometimes on a national scale.  

Princess Diana’s death was seen as a watershed moment in British life, a point when our collective psyche changed forever. The stiff upper lip was replaced with a new-found acceptance of public grief and a recognition that emotional repression, frankly, served no-one. Twitter has highlighted this shift in attitudes, but it has also accentuated it.

Emotional responses are rarely reasoned or rational. They are brief, cathartic and immediate. By providing a platform for people to deliver these emotions, social media has fulfilled a new-found need to share our grief immediately with others. In doing so, it has fast carved out a unique and valued form of social interaction.

Some will undoubtedly sneer at those choosing to share their feelings in such a public manner. But this doesn’t diminish the very real emotions felt by those reacting to Tom’s tragic death. Perhaps, in time, this will also mark the point that lingering cynicism towards public grief in this country was laid to rest. 

John Hood

Consultant

john@linstockcommunications.com