"My uncle died?"

With those words Rita commented on a picture published on her Cousin Mia's Facebook page, simply captioned "R.I.P".

Before logging into her Facebook page, Rita had no idea her sole uncle had passed away. Barely an hour had passed on his death and his photos had already been spread all over social media websites.

Just like Mia, Stephanie thought it appropriate to publish a picture of her brother who had died in a car crash on the Safra Highway at dawn.

She didn't wait for her tears to dry or for his friends to be informed.  She didn't wait for his burial before she put up his photo at 11 a.m. on the same day. She plastered his face on her Facebook wall while his obituary had yet to be put up on actual walls in the neighborhood.

It's Facebook, the website that dashed the real forms of communication between people. This is the virtual world that stole out social lives and held us captive in front of a small screen that haunts our daily routines.

With its debut years ago, Facebook was perceived a vessel to communicate with others and find new friends. But we lost our way in the racket of the daily hassle before Facebook itself started causing it. Our lives are now on display on virtual pages as we share our most intimate details with friends we don't really know.

Facebook knows about us more than our closest family and friends do. This could all be seen as blabber, but the question here is whether the picture of a mother's dead son on Facebook should bother you given that she had rushed to post it before an obituary notice was even released.

Doesn't a young man bidding his late father farewell on Facebook irritate you?

Doesn't it bother you that a fun site has turned into a wake hall?

Church bells used to sound announcing a death. Obituaries used to be hung in towns and villages, letting people know that a neighbor or a friend had passed away. Those days are long gone; Facebook has become the greatest of obituaries.

If death was a bit reserved, Facebook has stripped it of its veneration.

Maybe funerals should now be held on Facebook and the dead can march alone to the grave.

We are so busy crying, accepting condolences and updating pictures to even look at the deceased.

For God's sake, take us out of this disgusting reality overshadowing our lives.

For God's sake stop this madness. At least bury your dead before you weep their loss on Facebook.

Article Originally Written in Arabic by Rima Abu Khalil