In the hours after UCLA student Julien D’Avanzo’s
death early Thursday morning, one of his closest friends decided to
take his mourning online.
“I got back to my room, and that was the only thing that I
could think to do,” said Erick Magana, a second-year English
student who described D’Avanzo as “one of my best
friends.”
Magana created the “In Memory of Julien Bukkake
D’Avanzo” group on Facebook to give
D’Avanzo’s friends and family an outlet to grieve for
their friend and celebrate his life. D’Avanzo died Thursday
from injuries sustained after falling from a third-floor balcony in
Saxon Suites.
“This group is dedicated to the memory of our best friend
and family member Jules,” the online group’s
description says. “We love you and miss you Julien, life will
never ever be the same without you.”
The rapid growth of online social networking sites such as
Facebook and MySpace have created new avenues for social
interaction and have begun to change the way new generations
mourn.
In addition to the group, both D’Avanzo’s personal
Facebook and MySpace pages quickly became filled with messages of
grief, love and remembrance.
A notice on the memorial Facebook group tells his friends to
“feel free to contact anyone within the group to help cope
with this immense loss.”
But Magana said that the point of the group should not be to
mourn D’Avanzo’s death.
“I think the Facebook group should be to celebrate his
life,” Magana said. “I don’t want people to think
about why he died or how he died.”
As with other Facebook groups, the site gives members the
opportunity to view pictures and post messages.
As of 11 p.m. Thursday, the group had 119 members.
Magana said he and some of D’Avanzo’s friends are
planning to use the site to help compile a scrapbook of pictures,
quotes and stories about D’Avanzo’s life. They plan to
give the scrapbook to his mother to share with his family.
Gene D’Avanzo, Julien’s father, said he was
appreciative of the group and that it was indicative of the effects
his son had on others.
“I think that’s a great thing. It’s a tribute
to Julien’s friendships,” his father said. “I
think he impacted a lot of people.”
Magana echoed these sentiments.
“So many people love him because of the way he lived his
life, which was without restrictions,” he said. “He was
just so open and so ready for anything that would come his
way.”