Just one more killing spree to add to the list of shootings in the past twelve months. The mass-murder-suicide thing was a big deal back in 1999 with the Columbine incident, but in the past couple of years it’s happened so often that we don’t even care anymore. We can’t. It’s just a statistic.

In our information-overloaded society, the only way to get your fifteen minutes of fame anymore is to either make a popular YouTube video or to kill a lot of people. A kid went into an Omaha mall a few months ago and shot eight people just to get famous, in his own words. But history will only remember the names of Dylan, Eric and Cho, because Robert wasn’t able to destroy enough lives to make a lasting impact on our collective memory.

The next disaffected kid will notice this and make sure he tops Cho’s record of 32, knowing that with anything less, he will be forgotten within the week.

The Internet has networked everything together, globalized our culture and communication, and given the media unprecedented power. All indications are that this technology is only making the world a better place… but as a society, we have never been more disconnected from each other.