Social Media Gone Bad. #balloonboy

    I'm really doing this one off the cuff here, so please bear with me. I feel a need to rant.

    I had just started using Twitter when the whole "election" controversy sparked up in Iran. Thousands of folks showed up, made their avatars green in one way or another and helped spread information to each other. I witnessed all kinds of support being offered in any way possible. It was amazing.
    And today it is repulsive and vile. Earlier today, a 6 year old boy by the name of Falcon Henne reportedly climbed into a basket (meant for batteries and equipment) on his family's experimental Mylar weather balloon. (They are storm-chasers) The balloon became untethered and it took off. Helicopters eventually caught up with the balloon and tracked it for 2 hours until it finally came down in a farmers field. What they didn’t know was that the basket was missing and the boy was not inside the compartment that was present on the balloon. They are now starting a search along the flight path. (presumably from before the helicopters caught up to it, since none of them recorded anything other than what came down in the field, there was no other basket attached.)
    My heart goes out to this family. Young boys are always getting into stuff they shouldn’t and I see this as nothing other than a horrible accident. As of this writing, there is no word as to his location or condition, but I’m hoping for the best while expecting the worst.
    I’m also hoping the family isn’t following the #balloonboy hash tag on Twitter. Sure there is an outpouring of support and concern, but it is being drowned out by insensitive bastards that see this as a golden opportunity to crack lame jokes, spam for videos… someone has reportedly already designed and is trying to sell t-shirts. This is a 6 year old CHILD, people. A 6 year old child who undoubtedly was scared out of his mind, cold and, sad to say, most likely dead now after a fall of a couple of thousand feet. (as I said, I don’t know. Nobody does right now.) Shut the hell up with your retweets of a paraphrased Kanye West talking about Amelia Earhart. Seriously. Grow up. One day you will have children of your own and realize that shit like this just isn’t funny.

/Rant.

Thanks for reading/following. The next one will be more entertaining, I promise.


UPDATE:

It appears that 6 year old Falcon Henne was not in the balloon after all and has been found at home, hiding in a box in the attic of their garage.

I'm so glad to hear that.

Now it's time for the professional talking heads to beat this story to death. Changing channels to the cartoon network.