when it comes to tragedy/death are people really sympathetic towards the loss, or are they simply seeking attention, capitalizing off tragedy?

Question

they say death comes in 3s. the past 2 weeks hollywood lost 3 influential people. each tragedy more shocking than the other. social media seems to have been flooded with the news of peoples passings with no regard for the loved ones mourning. which made me question, when it comes to tragedy/death are people really sympathetic towards the loss, or are they simply seeking attention, capitalizing off tragedy or all of the above?
bonus: do you feel society is desensitized when it comes to tragedy?

Answer

All of the above. I believe in my heart that most people have good intentions, but there are also those that exploit tragedy. 
As an example, I thought Rose  McGowen was a little inappropriate after Tony Bourdain’s passing. Some of her commentary seemed to be more about herself than him. It was uncomfortable to see. 
Compassion fatigue is indeed a thing which exists.

Answer

I think most people are sympathetic. Although it would be naive to believe that no one uses a tragedy to capitalize off of in some way.

Answer

I have suffered a loss recently, and everyone has immediately turned to sympathetic when I brought it up. For normal everyday people, other people are more likely to be sympathetic. If a celebrity dies, some will be sympathetic and some will use the celebrity's death to gain attention.

Answer

wait, who died?

Answer

If anyone wants to tell me I was exploiting Anthony bourdains death by posting about it on my FB they can kiss my ass. That truly affects me. Growing up he made me feel like the way I viewed the world wasn’t crazy. That darkness is a part of life and it does make me inhuman. I’ve watched/read everything he’s ever done and I genuinely felt connected to him. He was also the first atheist celebrity I remember being able to connect to as teenager/kid as I’ve been atheist since I was 7 years old and felt like I was a bad person. He was a huge part of my life growing up and I was honestly devastated. I cried. I didn’t for the other two but who am I to say that person didn’t have the same profound affect on them as Anthony did to me.

Answer

I think it depends on the person and situation. If it’s someone you knew or someone you knew knew even, you are going to empathize and sympathize. 
Assuming we are talking the media and dead celebrities, I don’t think there’s much sympathy. You can hear about it and say “wow that’s sucks.” But not knowing who these people are how much are you really going to care? I would never use someone’s death as a way of getting publicity but to a lot of other people (in that industry) it’s nothing to them but a way to further themselves and gain attention.

Answer

It can go many ways. In our community we have recently lost over 20 men I went to high school with from fentanyl. Many many people just fiend off the tragedy where others just sympathize. Many many people are posting these long drawn out messages on social media about the losses etc and many of them have never spoken a word to to the people that have passed. Although I feel it’s a way of people sympathizing I also see it as a way to seek attention. Others are commenting “I’m so sorry for your loss” and they reply “thank you” when they have never even known the person. Yes it’s a loss to our community but you didn’t care about them alive you only care about them dead

Answer

I feel as though when people acknowledge a death on social media, it makes others post about it too because if they don’t post anything about it, it’ll make them look bad.
Most people are sympathetic when it comes to children, and people they look up to. Others kind of jump the bandwagon, give their thoughts and prayers, and move on with their day.

when it comes to tragedy/death are people really sympathetic towards the loss, or are they simply seeking attention, capitalizing off tragedy?

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