I was on Facebook around 10 last night and saw that a friend from high school (who married my 2nd cousin, ironically enough) had posted that her father-in-law passed away earlier that day.  Knowing that her father-in-law is my father’s first cousin, I thought about picking up the phone and calling my dad to tell him but wasn’t sure if my parents were still up.  I forgot all about it this morning but happened to call my parent’s house tonight after work to talk to my mom.  My dad answered and said “My cousin Tom died.  A brief death notice was in the newspaper today.”  I told him that I already heard the news and he seemed surprised that word had gotten to me already. He asked how I knew and I said “Gina posted it on Facebook last night.”  I had given him the rundown on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter a few weeks ago so at least he was familiar with it but he still seemed surprised that someone would post something like that.  To people my parent’s age it probably does seem strange to use these sites as places to share such personal information.  I’ve been meaning to get them on Facebook (and my dad on LinkedIn as he’s in sales and would find that site great for networking) for quite some time now, perhaps being able to connect with relatives will make them more interested.  Then again, all of their relatives live within a 15 minute drive of each other so perhaps it’s not necessary afterall?