Watching the heartbreak unfold about Mahto has been a gut punch. I barely knew the guy but the people who loved him serve as a reminder that there’s really not a difference between “online” and “irl” anymore. It used to be easy to separate the two worlds, but not anymore. It shouldn’t affect me so much directly, but watching his friends grieve in real time is fascinating and heartbreaking. And because of the way the algorithm works, it’s not just mutual friends that I’m having this reaction to. People I have never seen before are hurting and I’m feeling it. And I feel like the only way I can help is to bear witness to that grief somehow? I’m still trying to figure out how to articulate it.