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by CollegiateTimes.com
Monday, April 16th 2007 9:15PM
Facebook Reactions
For a generation that has grown up
with the evolving technology of the time, it seems most fitting for
memorials and prayers to be passed around through the internet.
Facebook, a social networking site,
has been hit with an influx of recent “groups” created to honor the Tech
students caught in the throes of yesterday’s events.
By searching “Tech Shooting,” 362
groups come up as hits, most of them dedicated to the memory of the
students and their families.
One group created by Tech Student
Tim Hall is called “April 16, 2007 — A Moment of Silence” and has 8,712
members thus far.
“It was like having a good dream and
waking up in the middle of a nightmare,” Hall said. “Virginia Tech
needed unity. By expressing what I felt on Facebook, I knew the entire
campus would rally and support the group. We are going through one of
those rare times when every student on campus is feeling the same
emotion: emptiness. It was my way of bringing the university together
and showing my classmates that the entire country supports us. It is
truly an amazing way of watching our beautiful country come together to
start the healing process.”
Each group has a “wall,” which
members, after they have joined, may write on to express their thoughts
on topics about the group. In a five-minute span on the wall for Hall’s
Facebook group, students from Old Dominion University, New York
University, Florida State University, Texas State, Marshall, Christopher
Newport University, University of Miami, Auburn, North Carolina A&T,
Seminole Community College, Rice and SUNY Potsdam all wrote messages
expressing their prayers and condolences to the students of Tech and the
hardships everyone on campus was enduring.
Kara Whipkey joined Hall’s group to
honor a friend of hers who had been shot in the massacre.
“I personally joined the group to
let everyone who is grieving know that we are all thinking and praying
for them,” Whipkey said. “I have a friend, Kristina Heeger who is
tragically a victim as well, and I am waiting to hear her status.”
“I just can't believe something like
this has happened,” Whipkey said. “I really have no words to show how
I'm feeling. All I can really say is that I am praying for the victims
and their family and friends.”
Thousands of students feel the
sentiment of Whipkey as well.
One group called “A tribute to those
who passed at the Virginia Tech shooting” is the largest group so far
created for memorializing the victims of 4/16. At 4:00 p.m. yesterday
the total members was up to 5,738. By 7:30 p.m., there were close to
31,000 members. The events on campus have spread their way across
international boundaries, the creator of this group is Paul Jansen: he
is in Greece.
Another group created by Michael
Leonard, a freshman at Tech, is called “Virginia Tech Massacre Memorial
Group,” “I thought this would be a good way to increase awareness,”
Leonard said.
“I was in lockdown in Torgersen
Hall, and I wondered if anyone had done it. When I got back to my room I
decided I would just make one myself.”
However, not all groups created are
in good light. Some groups, many Facebook members and Tech students have
observed, are not in good taste.
One such group is called, “Duck n
Cover … The saga continues,” where many students have voiced their
opinions of the group on its wall, asking the creator to erase the group
entirely.
“I was offended by the nature of
that group,” said Alex Weaver, a freshman at Tech.
But groups like these are far and
few between. Students and Facebook members have mobilized themselves on
a digital front to show their support for the Hokies, and everyone
touched by the events on this day in April. Supporters increase by the
minute, and the Hokies hear their heartfelt offerings of remorse.
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