Social networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace are among the top ways for students to keep in touch. But in the wake of Monday’s events at Virginia Tech, more people may be drawn to Web sites like these.
Many Virginia Tech students have responded with gratitude to the people who sent prayers and condolences through social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook this week. After the shootings, many people have used MySpace and Facebook to express their grief and offer their condolences and prayers.
Since Monday, more than 500 Facebook groups dedicated to the Virginia Tech shootings have been created. People across the globe have joined or created groups, posting their condolences on the Web site. Many events have also been posted, most of them asking Facebook users to pray for the people affected by the Virginia Tech shootings. Some of the events are candlelight vigils held in different parts of the country.
These social networking sites have been traditionally used to keep in touch with old friends or to make new ones, but now these sites are also being used for people to commiserate. With the instant responses and constant updates, sites like these were also used to make sure friends and loved ones were OK.
Jasmin Sanchez, a sophomore child development major who has a MySpace account, said if something like the Virginia Tech shootings happened on campus, Sanchez said she’d probably try to reach her friends through MySpace.
“I mainly keep in contact with friends from high school,” Sanchez said. She said she noticed the memorials on MySpace and said she would be interested in checking them out. “That would probably be the best way to come in contact with them,” she said.
Senior English major Frank Bell also said MySpace would be a good way to reach people during a crisis.
“It’s a good way of keeping in touch with people without having to talk to them,” Bell said. He said he has an account with MySpace and Facebook, checking his MySpace account every day and his Facebook account once a week.
But Miranda Ragland, a senior computer science major, said she would not use MySpace in an emergency.
“I would contact them in a more reliable way,” Ragland said.
The New York Times has made a memorial with links to different students’ MySpace and Facebook profiles. Some of the students killed on Monday had MySpace accounts that are still active. Family and friends have left comments on the pages, expressing the grief they feel.
