Facebook Panic

On Sunday I opened my Facebook account and was pleased to view a post from my niece, Danielle. Since moving farther away two years ago from my family in Minnesota and transplanting myself from Chicago to Nashville, Tennessee, I have had to rely on networks like Facebook to keep up with the hordes of family members that I don't see near enough.
Excited to read what Danielle wrote on her wall I opened to her page and gasped as I read her post, DANIELLE IS DEAD.
I caught my breath and phoned my daughter, Lauren, who is up-to-date on all of the technology lingo that kids use.
"Lauren, when someone writes that they are dead on their Facebook account, does this mean something other than what I,a post-computer-era person, is thinking?"
Lauren thought about this and said that she dos not know of any other meaning to this phrase.
I told her about her cousin's posting and her immediate response was that 'I feel like I am going to get sick to my stomach'. And then I remembered that the previous week a former high school classmate of hers from Chicago had posted a similar phrase, and a day after the posting was found with a fatal gunshot wound to
the head.
With hands shaking I dialed the number of my sister in Clearwater, Minnesota and asked her when she last spoke to Danielle. They live close to each other and are knitted at the heart.
When I relayed the story to Joann she quickly hung up and called around to find out about this unsettling message - and the reason for it - on Facebook.

She called Danielle's phone, her mother and her sister, Jessica. Only to hear the incessant ringing of unanswered phones.
Joann called her husband Fred who was fishing on the lake with our brother Kevin, Danielle's dad. Kevin had no idea where his 20-year-old daughter was, but he did say she had been despondent as of late.
In a panic , and the need to have answers, Joann called the local hospital and asked for the Emergency Room.
"Yes, Danielle is here. Since you are not a parent or legal guardian we cannot release any informtion to you."
Kevin was given the news and headed to the hospital. Danielle is okay. She was being checked out and having MRI's done, with a condition that was totally unelated to anything that could be connected to the Facebook posting.
What are the ground rules for posting something the world is privy to reading? In this disconnected world we have found ways to connect in any way possible.
Is there, and should there be, a protocol to follow? A common language or set of rules so we are all on the same page, in the same book?
Take heed. think before you write. What may sound cute to you and another friend may be misconstrued by other readers.
Facebook, like anything else in life, needs some thought put into it. We need to think before we write. How seriously should we take the postings on a friend or loved ones Home Page?
When do we know to act?
We can chalk it up to just fun and games, but if someone had heeded the words written on Facebook last week of Lauren's high school classmate, could he have been helped in time?
Do we listen to the hum of bullets or do we overlook them until it is too late to put them back into the smoking gun?
Facebook, social networking. Type out what you mean, keep your personal jokes that are between you...well, between you and your friend and not on the World's Biggest Bilboard.
With the suicide rate climbing, depression running rampant in this country, let's keep Facebook what is is meant to be...a place to keep in touch and connect with friends, family and people from days-gone-by.
Let's use a little thought before we post words for a loving family or close friends to read.