WhatsApp Killed My Father While he was Still Alive

A son of one of yesterday's drowning victims blames his WhatsApp group for "killing his father while he was still alive."

Excerpts of the son's letter appear below:

" I was informed of my father's death from a WhatsApp group… at Work I usually keep my phone on silent so I could get things done. At approximately 11:30 a.m. I see the other people in the office gathering around and talking quietly…At 11:45 I give a slight glance at my phone and I see that I have 68 unread messages from 9 different WhatsApp groups. That was my first sign that something unusual is happening today.

I…go directly to WhatsApp. At that very second my heart skipped a beat. My fingers froze. My eyes were rolling. I saw stars. All messages read BDE at least three people dead in an apparent boat accident in Florida. Every group that I am a member of had at least 10-15 messages with pictures and voice notes of how many people died, how and where with full details.

Me as a family member however, did not know of a thing that had happened. And all of a sudden, from reading a WhatsApp message, I was left without a father! A point blank Yusim!

…I do want to take a few minutes to discuss the recklessness from WhatsApp groups. I feel that now might be a time that people might reconsider broadcasting and distributing news on WhatsApp.

The first message started circling WtasApp at approximately 11:00 a.m. The messages read, "There was a fatal boat accident in Miami and three people are dead, Rosenberg, Parnes and Englander."

Without hesitation somoen decided to write a message killing 3 people right then and theres. And thousands of shares were followed within seconds.

At 11:00 a.m. not one of them were confirmed dead! So instead of sharing messages to Daven or say Tehilim for the critically injured, somoen decided he will get more shares on social media or will be looked at as a hero on WhatsApp because he was first with the news. So wrong on many levels!

…Right now I have no voice. No mind. I am typing this message with tears.
This was without a doubt the hardest and worst day of my life. And the WhatsApp messages made it a lot worse!

All I'm trying to say here is, when a tragedy strikes, don't try to be a hero with sharing news as fast as you can… And NEVER assume or make something up. Because there's always a family …at stake.

I will never forget the first WhatsApp messages I read when I opened my phone. Make sure to never be the person who writes that message.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!