"Pause for thought,".

In the past, religious past, one would pray.
Have a moment of reflection.

I meditate.

Ha ha, i hear.
Something i learnt .

Step out of it.

I wrote that quickly, i meant step aside for a moment, pause and consider.
"Step out of it," was meant to mean that.

I agree with that 

Why do people write "RIP" on anonymous internet forums in response  to news stories of peoples demise who they have never met or have any connection with ? 

I am not sure why this thread was initiated.
I do know that every start of life has an end.
If we knew the person, dead, then a pause to think of her/him.
If not known, a pause to think of the loss and of our own mortality.
" how their family are grieving for them."
They should not be grieving for them, they are gone. The grief is personal, a loss, part of ones own existence gone forever.
I prefer the Buddhist way of celebrating a death (note many other sects do) as a loss, but not of having gone "to a better place", but of existing in memory.
Metaphysics.

'No Man is an Island'

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.