Twitter: the new memorial

When Teddy Kennedy died earlier this week, I didn’t get the news from the Today Show or from the morning paper.

I read it on Twitter.

And I really shouldn’t call it news.  The comments on Twitter about Kennedy’s death were more like one-line eulogies.  A rolling memorial, if you will.  People of all ages had something to say about his passing, his legacy.

I can see this happening for a Teddy Kennedy.   Or Michael Jackson, perhaps.  Both were larger than life.  You can understand how someone of their stature could elicit such attention.

But when I got home last night, I found Twitter eulogizing yet another passing…that of DJ AM.

All I know about Adam Goldstein (DJ AM’s real name) comes from US Weekly and Access Hollywood. He was a popular DJ at Hollywood parties, survived a recent plane crash with Travis Barker, and dated various celebs and models.

DJ AM was only 36 years old when he died at his New York City apartment Friday. And his friends — those who knew him well and those who had only read about him — chose to pay tribute to his passing…by tweeting.

I have to wonder if the minds behind  Twitter envisioned their social medium becoming the first choice for remembering the dead.  Did they think people would answer “What are you doing?” with memorials and tributes? But Twitter’s very immediacy — and famed 140-character limit — have made it the place to express those first pangs of sympathy succinctly…and publicly.

Like we do everything else these days…for everyone to see.