Bill Nye the Science Guy forgives USC its Twitterishness

A couple of USC seniors felt some of their fellow students demonstrated a lack of humanity last month when their guest speaker -- Bill Nye the Science Guy -- collapsed on stage.

Rather than come to Nye's assistance, the students pecked away at their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, sending out news of the TV icon's distress, instead of doing anything to come to his aid, the two students said.

That story lighted up the Internet a few weeks ago, in what, as I wrote at the time, appeared to be another bit of proof that young narcissists spent too much time wallowing in their technology, losing their humanity in the process.

But that account soon met a stiff challenge. Others who attended the Nye speech at USC's Bovard Auditorium said the crowd was not nearly as detached as the two students originally reported. And, as I tried to show by way of some of the Internet postings on the event, the story took on a magnitude of its own due to the viral, myth-building power of the blogosphere.

Now, the "victim" of the students' purported bad behavior has come forward with his own account. And bow-tied Mr. Nye essentially says: No big deal. Nye wrote on his website that the USC students who came to his aid "were attentive, thoughtful, and gracious."

He also said he understood, as some students reported at the time, how they initially thought his collapse on stage (which he attributed to "fatigue and minor food poisoning") might have appeared to be a comedic device.

Nye offered only the mildest commentary on the propensity of some people, particularly the young, to operate in constant-communication mode. "I predict we’re in a phase," Nye wrote. "In a few years, people will learn to reduce their message sending, the same way many of us have learned not to answer the phone during dinner."

Nye also wryly observed that, given the large crowd of students who came to see him, it may have been for the best that they all didn't rush to show their concern. "I can assure you," he wrote, "that having 1,200 strangers run toward you when you’re sick is not appealing."

-- James Rainey

Photo: Bill Nye, host of television's "Bill Nye the Science Guy." Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press

 

Comments

[Bill Peet]

Bill Nye is a very decent, gracious guy, and I'm glad to hear he's doing well. It's good that all's well that ends well.

[Heisenberg]

I love Bill Nye the Science Guy!

[daniella]

he was a better teacher than most of my science teachers throughout my life.

[NorthernCA Teacher]

I hope he is fully recovered.

The picture included with this article shows a very gaunt, thin version of Bill.

I am a science teacher and I wish I had the stage presence, energy and enthusiasm that this man has.....

Of course, after dealing with rude, lazy, disrespectful kids off-n-on during the day, it is a bit overwhelming by last period.

[trajan]

Bill Nye looks sick and emaciated. Something that he is doing is not healthy.

[Marco Cota]

Bill is sick looking since he is into science as the Creator is not and this is what happens to people like Carl Sagan and himself. He looks like the Devil to me. Awe, can you forgive me Science guy??

[Elian Gonzalez]

"He also said he understood, as some students reported at the time, how they initially thought his collapse on stage (which he attributed to "fatigue and minor food poisoning") might have appeared to be a comedic device."

Give me a break. This was not a vaudeville act.

[Elian Gonzalez]

@Marco

Klassy, very klassy.

[USC Student]

It's quite disappointing how many negative comments are just thrown out freely by the public when they weren't inside Bovard Auditorium. I was there and all the students were confused on if he was putting on an act or not.

When we all realized the grim truth, several students (the event programmers) rushed to aid him then and when he kept trying to continue the lecture, students kept on telling him to sit down on a chair. No concern my ass. It's psychologically hard for a person who's packed in the auditorium with 1000+ people to squeeze through other seated people and jump onto stage. Some of you should give me and the other students a break. You weren't there and you're merely making an opinion on a a source of news that is biased on other people's opinion. An LA Times corespondent wasn't even there at the event so it's not too hard to deduce that you get biased information when you ask after the event happened when not being at the scene.