It may have started with the strange outpouring of collective grief that followed the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, but the British have become a nation of public mourners. Whether lining the streets of Wootton Bassett – as yet another coffin makes its way back from Afghanistan – or marking the death of a celebrity, we want to show solidarity with the suffering of others and demonstrate a shared sense of grief. As Ben Macintyre wrote in The Times today: “Today’s mourners are …. brought up in an atmosphere of emotional honesty and openness to collective grief.”
It is this collective self expression that so captures the spirit of the times in which we live. We have the desire and the means to express and share our feelings or inner-most thoughts – whether weeping in public or producing a video confessional on YouTube – and also want to feel part of a shared experience. The social media evangelists often see this trend as a biproduct of their new media technologies, but we are dealing with something far more profound than Twitter.