I wish there were a way to share bad news without conversations becoming focused on sympathy. When sharing a death in the family with acquaintances, I'd prefer to just share the news and move on. But, because that's unrealistic, I usually avoid the topic unless I've talked about the family member with them before.
When I break up, I can show that I'm newly single on Facebook. That helps alleviate the need to have the same conversation over and over again and prevents friends from asking awkward questions about a relationship that's over. But, there isn't a similar mechanism for sharing other forms of bad news like upcoming funerals or cancer diagnoses.
It's not that I don't want to share what's going on in my life. I just prefer avoiding conversations that may be perceived as me asking for sympathy.