I just can’t do it. At some level, maybe I can pretend his death isn’t real if I don’t hit that “unfollow” button.

Mattie isn’t the only example, of course. I have this same arrangement with @AndrewBreitbart (whom I did know). We still follow each other. This gives me comfort. There are, no doubt, others.

We build communities based on social networks. Sometimes we meet our online friends at conferences, but sometimes we have real relationships with people we will never meet. And we don’t just mourn the losses. As I write this, conservatives on Twitter are rooting for the recovery of our friend Jim Hoft (@GatewayPundit), celebrating birthdays and marriages of others, and helping the family of our friend and colleague Caleb Howe. (Many of the people offering their heartfelt prayers and support have, no doubt, never actually met one another. Or if they did, it was for a fleeting moment as they scurried to or from some CPAC conference room to a breakout session.)

Aside from mourning our losses, celebrating our milestones, and cheering our ill, Twitter seems to also serve as a way to memorialize our fallen — to remember friends who are no longer with us. Sometimes, we even tweet them — or, at least, use their Twitter handle.