|
Sharing grief, digitially |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Written by Stephanie Hoo, asap
|
|
Wednesday, 18 April 2007 |
|
|
|
|
“my heart goes out 2 you all.”
“Rest in Peace.”
“Today, we are all Hokies.”
There are many ways to mourn Virginia Tech’s fallen students — with candles and condolence cards, bouquets and prayer. But if the outpouring of grief online is any measure, not even an airplane hangar could hold all the tributes.
Only the Internet is big enough.
“Stay Strong!!”
“My prayers are out there with everyone else’s.”
“There are no words that could ever help any of us understand.”
A Facebook page dedicated to the shooting victims has more than 200,000 members and — at last count — more than 13,000 user comments. There are also video tributes on YouTube and an ocean of blog entries and discussion board comments.
“I definitely feel that groups like this help people come to terms with their feelings and emotions, and in essence grieve,” writes Paul Jansen, who set up the now-massive Facebook page. http://tinyurl.com/3aszqn (Login required.)
Jansen, 19 and a student at the American College of Greece in Athens, started the group a few hours after the shooting to find out how his friends at Virginia Tech were doing since he is not a student there.
“I did not expect for it to become so big,” he says by e-mail. “Within a few hours after creation there were discussions on everything from gun control to future prevention. I feel that this group has opened dialogue amongst students, all hoping to rebuild from this horrific shooting to a brighter future, all reflected in the thousands of kind words from others.”
“My thoughts are with the VT community.”
“I get chills just looking at this page.”
Grief can be private. It can be public. Online, it is both — typed from the dark of one’s study, perhaps, but shared with the world.
“In a strange way, online has become less ephemeral than a lot of the physical world,” says Howard Rheingold, author of “The Virtual Community.” People move, buildings are torn down, but online archives last seemingly forever, he explains.
Also, for today’s college students, “they don’t make a lot of strong distinctions between their face-to-face community and their virtual community. It’s natural that they would turn to online,” he says. “There’s a communion aspect to it.”
If in the past, people shared their feelings over the telephone, one on one, technology now lets people communicate with everyone at once. In other words, news travels faster and so does grief — and the only way for a lot of people to get together at once is online.
Over on YouTube, Penn State junior Brighid Wood uploaded a homemade video of news photos from Virginia Tech as well as images of universities’ condolence letters — everywhere from CalTech to Columbia. http://tinyurl.com/2l5dbo
She says she made it over a few hours on Monday night.
“I thought they should know that all the colleges around the country were going to be behind them,” she says. “No matter how it panned out, the country was going to be behind them.”
——
More online memorials:
http://www.prayersforhokies.org/
http://www.vt.edu/
http://tinyurl.com/2f7xg4
http://tinyurl.com/2ownha
———
Stephanie Hoo is an asap reporter based in New York. | Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
|
|  | "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth." | |
|  | We're not that bright, even though in our own little world, we're geniuses. We like 80s hair bands and one-hit wonders, but among us we have respectable tastes, too. Metallica, Iron Maiden, U2. Pursuit of all things trivial is a lifestyle, not just a game. We like some sports, love other sports, and can find something to say about anything. We watch TV and movies and we've read a book or two, even a few classics (Yes, Classic Comics count!)
We call it insight, you call it what you will. | |
|  | Felix Wong is an outdoor enthusiast living in Fort Collins. A mechanical engineer by day, he is especially passionate about bicycling, running, and backpacking. | |
|  | Hola Amigos! I'm Sandra. I like to believe that people are 70 percent good and 30 percent dumb. I'm stickin to that story. Reading this blog might make you want to be good, but probably just dumb. | |
|  | Donovan Henderson is editor of NEXTnc. | |
|  | Here at Nextnc we have some characters. Get a sneak peak behind the curtain and find out what amusing antics our staffers get themselves into on a weekly basis. | |
|  | What is up FoCo?
I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks.
Right now I am just trying to get to know Colorado and FoCo better. Mostly in order to find the best drink specials on each day that ends in Y. So if you know where I can get a cheap drunk on, let me know!
--Drew | |
|  | Life's little morsels of inspiration, observation and encouragement seen through the eyes of the Nextnc reporter.
| |
|  | Ms. Giles currently lives in Colorado where she stars in her own private reality show. She writes aphoristic accounts of her life, taken completely out of context, and embellished with characters and situations disguised to resemble something close to interesting. | |
|  | over and out | |
| | My name is Michelle Turley and I'm 28 years old. I live in Severance with my hubbie, Brandon. We have 2 dogs and a cat. We enjoy camping, four-wheeling, and just being in the mountains. I like to cook, clean (go figure), flea market, and play poker. I have so much to say about poker... | |
|
|
