Death on Facebook ?

If you are on Facebook, you're familiar about the frequent reminders of “friend” birthdays. The more friends you've managed to garner, the higher the frequency.

So, yesterday, as I noticed that one of my High School comrades, back in France, was celebrating an extra year, I congratulated him, throwing a bit of my personal humor, in the process, to add some pizzazz to the notice.

Minutes later, I got a message, from one of this friend's relatives letting me know that he had passed away six month earlier. I had no way of knowing, as there was no mention of his demise on his still active Facebook wall.

It's true that after receiving my comment, that same relative posted a message on that friend's wall reminiscing his passing half-a-year earlier, but other than that, he was still alive according to Facebook.