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Phones deprive us of dignity in death
Whitney Houston
THE world was still struggling to come to terms with the sudden loss of Whitney Houston when it was suddenly bombarded with images of her tragic death scene.
Newspapers and websites around the globe featured the grainy image of the bath in which she drowned, her belongings still around the sides and in the bottom of the tub.
The 48-year-old singer had allegedly been pulled from the water just minutes earlier.
Other equally poor-quality shots of her hotel room have also surfaced, revealing everything from the private contents of her bathroom, to what she ate for her final meal.
The truth is that the privacy of celebrities has all but become extinct since smart phones turned us all into opportunistic paparazzi.
It would have taken just seconds for someone to slide their phone out of their pocket and take the pictures, their actions probably going unnoticed by anybody around them. And that is the world of instant technology we find ourselves in.
Imagine the sheer volume of tragic images that would be on the internet today had our smart phones been around 60 years ago. We’d no doubt have Youtube footage of River Phoenix as he lay dying on an LA sidewalk; photos of a broken James Dean pinned in his mangled car and close-ups of Elvis’ bathroom floor, shortly after the superstar was peeled off it.
Invasion of privacy? Absolutely. In poor taste? Absolutely. But would we all stop and have a look? Absolutely.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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PaoloS
Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 10:07 AMUnlike a local paper that doorsteps grieving family members 4 hours after their son's death. I wonder if you'll write an article about that?
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