There was a terrorist attack in Moscow?

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If you haven't heard about the Moscow bombings that occurred on Monday morning, that doesn’t mean you have been living under a rock. Has anybody noticed that even though a fairly massive terrorist attack has occurred, trending topics on the social blogging platform Twitter remain trivial? Some of the trending topics include 'Justin Bieber', 'Glee', or 'ZodiacFacts'.

Is a 15-year-old pop star really more important to the masses than the deaths of 35 - 40 people in a suicide bombing? What about a popular television show? While the story is prominent on news media, such as Reuters, it seems largely ignored on social media websites.

Following the Haiti earthquake social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with tweets and status updates regarding the disaster. Why is it so different when it is a Russian catastrophe?

The London bombings in 2005 saturated the news media for weeks, maybe even months, and then death toll was not much higher than that of the Moscow subway bombings. It is safe to assume that users of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook would have been making their voices heard regarding the event. 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated that "A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed". Is it really so different from the London bombings, or dare I say it, the September 11th attacks? I would say no, but why does nobody seem to care?

Are we really so Westernised in our thinking that we are ready to sweep disasters that are not American/British under the rug?