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I’m somewhat of a guerrilla-sociologist when it comes to all of the various social media that has reached massive adoption over the past 5 years. I like saying things and watching how people act and react. I like seeing how relationship proximity has been redefined by Facebook. For instance, on your birthday you used to expect a call from grandma, grandpa, mom and dad, maybe an aunt or an uncle. Brother and sister would shout out on speaker phone and maybe 3-5 friends would take time to call you while 10-20 might work up the effort to come out for a party, if it was something fun….These days, your grandparents and parents still call, your brother and sister probably text, your first-adopter friends reply to you on twitter, your closer friends write private messages to you on Facebook and 40-50 other people write something on your wall. I don’t know if it’s better or worse…i’m just saying it’s different that it used to be. Anyway, in my “study” of social media, there’s one thing i hadn’t experienced…at least until tonight, and honestly, it broke my heart.
Last night, an rookie Anaheim Angels pitcher, fresh off a scoreless 6-inning outing, was killed by a drunk driver in a hit-and-run accident. The sports media picked up on it instantly and i was aware of it from the get-go. The article mentioned 2 other people who were killed in the accident, but they weren’t baseball players, so their names weren’t at the top of the article. I grew up with, and still follow the career of, a friend who also plays for the Angels and i was immediately relieved that he wasn’t the one in the accident while still being acutely aware of how close he or any one of us could be to that type of situation.
Fast forward to tonight and i start noticing quite a few wall posts and status updates from friends of mine on Facebook who are saying things like “RIP Henry” and “Hank, you’ll be missed.” Somehow, i knew the two stories were connected. I check back into the story on ESPN.com where details have been added and about half way down, the names of the other two people killed have now been released. One of them is Henry Pearson.
I was not Facebook friends with Henry but since we had 15 mutual friends, i know that we stood in the same living room on Don Carlos road in Tempe drinking our mutual friend’s keg beer. I remember meeting him and saying hello to him when i saw him. We both went to ASU, so i was allowed to see his Facebook profile. Scrolling down, there are many, many messages of remembrance and condolences…like a chain-link fence or a grave site used to be 5 years ago.
The extremely haunting part occurs around the time the news of the accident was being released. Friends of his, that knew of his relationship to the Angels player who was killed start writing on his wall: “Call me when you get this.” and “Please let me know you’re ok.” A new social media paradigm: Death…in real time.
Much love goes out to Henry, and all of his friends and his family, who are all no doubt suffering right now.
