Florida, Dec 21 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Shellie Ross’s son fell into the pool, and while the paramedics tried their best to revive the little boy, Shellie Ross was busy in tweeting to her followers that, “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”

Unfortunately the doctors couldn’t save her son and he died from drowning in the pool, so Shellie Ross tweeted again on the micro-blogging and social networking site Twitter that, “Remembering my million dollar baby” with a picture of her son as well. Her tweeting while her son was fighting for life has come under attack from many sides. People are of the opinion that instead of being worried about her son, how could she be so heartless that she was busy tweeting.

The news was also posted on her blog, and soon many messages started coming in, out of which some were sympathetic and supportive, whereas the others spared no words in critiquing her heartlessness. Some of them said that if she had been paying more attention to her child than to Twitter, her son would not have died.

‘The backlash shows the double-edged nature of depending on online ‘friends’ for solace’, says Dan Liechty, of Illinois State University. Liechty, of ISU’s social work department, said Ross did what any parent would do — she sought support from what she felt was her “community,” the same as a generation ago, parents would have been on the phone, getting friends — even strangers — to pray for them.

“That’s totally appropriate then. I mean what else is she going to do? The medics are there, she’s feeling she needs the support of her community — and that’s her community,” he said.

“I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing, but that’s they way it is,” said Liechty.