It's unknown how many voyeurs actually tuned in, but a day later Clementi, an accomplished violinist, posted his final thought on his Facebook page by simply writing, "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry."
Clementi's death has fueled the debate over privacy and the abuse of technology.
"It is the kids that would never do this in person," said Regina Lewis, an Internet trend expert at AOL. "Then they get behind the computer, and (it happens) because they are tech savvy, the anonymity and underdeveloped sense of empathy or, frankly, maturity."
The Rutger's tragedy comes on the same week "The Social Network" opens in theaters nationwide.
The movie about /*Facebook*/ and its CEO /*Mark Zuckerberg*/ is bound to attract the college crowd, which makes up a large part of the website's 550 million users.
News of the Rutger's suicide spread to college campuses across the country. But for some tech-savvy /*University of Southern California*/ students, privacy on social networking sites is of little concern.
"Nowadays having a Facebook account is like having a bank account," said one student. "Everybody has it."
