Not long ago, estrangements between family members, for all the anguish they can cause, could mean a fairly clean break. People would cut off contact, never to be heard from again unless they reconciled.<\/p>\n
But in a social network world, estrangement is being redefined, with new complications. Relatives can get vivid glimpses of one another\u2019s lives through Facebook updates, Twitter feeds and Instagram pictures of a grandchild or a wedding rehearsal dinner. And those glimpses are often painful reminders of what they have lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cI frequently hear, \u201d\u02dcI heard from somebody else who read it on Facebook that my son just got married,\u2019 or, \u201d\u02dcMy daughter just had a child, and I didn\u2019t even know she was pregnant,\u2019 \u201d\u009d said Joshua Coleman, a psychologist in the Bay Area who wrote a book about estrangement, \u201cWhen Parents Hurt.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are things that parents assume all their lives they\u2019d be there for, then they hear in a very public third-hand way about it, and it adds a layer of hurt and humiliation,\u201d\u009d he said.<\/p>\n