Memorial Day Tributes To Flood Facebook Feeds

Memorial Day is not just unforgettable: Thanks to Facebook, it's also inescapable. Salutes to troops past and present will be showing up every few seconds this weekend, if the pace of posting is anything like Memorial Day 2011.

Experts and everyday Facebook users says holiday posts are a contagious phenomenon, encouraging users to mark every celebratory moment online. "Likes" for Facebook's own flag-emblazoned Memorial Day page passed 102,000 by this week.

"The pressure is on to show you remember the birthday or national holiday," says Sara Linton, 28, of Oakland.

Linton says she'll post an image of one of her most precious possessions, a letter from her grandfather, Ted Linton, to his wife, her grandmother Thora, on VJ Day in 1945.

"I'm proud we get to honor people and remember what they did," Linton says. "Posting something unique and real makes Facebook less superficial."

Holiday posts are about the urge to be known, like getting a tattoo or putting a bumper sticker on the car says Sam Gosling, a psychology professor at University of Texas.

Ed Reiman presents his Facebook and Twitter identity as a husband, a grandfather and a retired businessman in Portland, Ore., and -- perhaps, most telling of all -- as a Vietnam War veteran.

Reiman, 65, tweeted at #USWarstories this week: "Was in Vietnam in the Army '67/'68 thru "Tet" survived think about it and friends I lost there everyday, but have lived well, raised a family have 'grands' and am now retired. I am blessed."

He has mixed feelings about the outpouring of Memorial Day posts.

"I think most folks are sincere, but I also think some people are trying to get rid of their own guilt for not speaking up sooner against the Vietnam War or for turning a cold shoulder to those veterans for 20 or 30 years," Reiman says.