MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. -- A child’s jumbled train tracks and a toppled plastic dinosaur lie on the floor by the Ross family’s Christmas tree, left behind by 2-year-old Bryson Ross before he drowned in the family’s swimming pool Monday evening.
But it’s what has been happening on the Internet that has people talking about the tragedy and what is acceptable in today’s world of instant communication and tell-all messaging.
Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported that Bryson’s mother, Shellie Ross, posted on Twitter.com about his accident a half-hour after she called paramedics -- and then was attacked by strangers nationwide in follow-up tweets and blogs for doing so.
Social media experts said Ross did nothing wrong. Her friends call the 37-year-old a caring, devoted mom.
Ross is aware of the controversy, but she declined Wednesday to be interviewed by Florida Today, steering requests instead to friends who are monitoring the Web discussions. Those same friends advised her to stop reading the responses to her online postings. However, she was back on Twitter on Wednesday, thanking the Air Force for their “amazing” support and castigating two Twitter critics.
Ross did respond to critics with this tweet, "It only takes a second for a child to get away no matter how much you keep your eye on them. Where are your children right now while you are on the computer?"
A Post Timeline
Ross is an established personality in the online world, with her own blog (http://blog4mom.com) and Twitter account (http://twitter.com/Military_Mom). More than 5,300 people follow her Twitter posts.
On Monday, as usual, she tweeted throughout the day about what was going on in her life, including decorating the family’s Christmas tree with breakable ornaments -- despite having a 2-year-old in a house they had just moved into on Dec. 1. At 5:22 p.m. Monday, she tweeted about the rare fog that rolled over Brevard County as she worked in her chicken coop.
According to 911 records, a phone call from Ross came in at 5:38 p.m. that she had found her son at the bottom of their screened-in swimming pool.
She posted a tweet at 6:12 p.m.: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”
That was followed five hours later with “remembering my million dollar baby” and photos of a smiling Bryson. Those posts and pictures have since been removed from her Twitter account. There is nothing in Ross’ posts that indicate she was on the computer or cell phone at the time of the tragedy.
It is unclear what Ross was doing between 5:22 p.m., when she tweeted, and 5:38 p.m., when she called for help.
In a tweet posted Tuesday morning, Ross wrote, “I was outside with him and it took two seconds for him to slip away.”
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office called it an accidental drowning.
But it’s what has been happening on the Internet that has people talking about the tragedy and what is acceptable in today’s world of instant communication and tell-all messaging.
Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported that Bryson’s mother, Shellie Ross, posted on Twitter.com about his accident a half-hour after she called paramedics -- and then was attacked by strangers nationwide in follow-up tweets and blogs for doing so.
Social media experts said Ross did nothing wrong. Her friends call the 37-year-old a caring, devoted mom.
Ross is aware of the controversy, but she declined Wednesday to be interviewed by Florida Today, steering requests instead to friends who are monitoring the Web discussions. Those same friends advised her to stop reading the responses to her online postings. However, she was back on Twitter on Wednesday, thanking the Air Force for their “amazing” support and castigating two Twitter critics.
Ross did respond to critics with this tweet, "It only takes a second for a child to get away no matter how much you keep your eye on them. Where are your children right now while you are on the computer?"
A Post Timeline
Ross is an established personality in the online world, with her own blog (http://blog4mom.com) and Twitter account (http://twitter.com/Military_Mom). More than 5,300 people follow her Twitter posts.
On Monday, as usual, she tweeted throughout the day about what was going on in her life, including decorating the family’s Christmas tree with breakable ornaments -- despite having a 2-year-old in a house they had just moved into on Dec. 1. At 5:22 p.m. Monday, she tweeted about the rare fog that rolled over Brevard County as she worked in her chicken coop.
According to 911 records, a phone call from Ross came in at 5:38 p.m. that she had found her son at the bottom of their screened-in swimming pool.
She posted a tweet at 6:12 p.m.: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”
That was followed five hours later with “remembering my million dollar baby” and photos of a smiling Bryson. Those posts and pictures have since been removed from her Twitter account. There is nothing in Ross’ posts that indicate she was on the computer or cell phone at the time of the tragedy.
It is unclear what Ross was doing between 5:22 p.m., when she tweeted, and 5:38 p.m., when she called for help.
In a tweet posted Tuesday morning, Ross wrote, “I was outside with him and it took two seconds for him to slip away.”
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office called it an accidental drowning.
