Memorializing Virginia Tech Online
USA Today featured a story on a decision by social networking sites Facebook and MySpace to suspend their policies and allow the personal pages of the slain Virginia Tech students to remain online to memorialize the students and allow others to post messages to their pages. I thought this article was interesting, because one of the mothers said she felt taking down her son’s site was similar to taking another piece of him away from her. Her quote made my heart break, and I started to think about the comfort that exists with knowing a part of your child stays alive in perpetuity.
The healing that is occurring for Hokies through social networking and electronic outlets across the country and globally is amazing. How can you use the power of this medium on your campus and with your students to memorialize the good and the bad? How can the emotions tied to these sites be harnessed to tell your story?