14 DAY TRIAL // Messages of grief and shock continue to flood social media as more and more people find out that comedic actor Robin Williams was found dead in his home after he is believed to have committed at the age of 63. However, some people out there have confused the American actor with the British singer Robbie Williams, the former member of Take That.
As you can imagine, people found it very hard to believe that the musician, who is significantly younger than Robin Williams was, had passed away and they took their frustration and shock to Twitter. Some cried that music had lost an entertainer and Britain a great, talented man, other complained that they were going to miss his music.
But they all had one thing in common: the fact that they didn't bother reading the news properly or being blissfully unaware of the fact that there was a Robin Williams long before there was ever a Robbie.
As you can imagine, so many messages of grief and shock created a snowball effect among people who are always eager to cry the loss of a famous person, so Robbie Williams and Take That soon began to trend on Twitter.
While all of this was going on, a lot of actors and famous people who knew Robin Williams or loved his work, issued heartfelt messages for his loved ones and praised the actor's entire career. Even President Obama issued a statement that read “He made us laugh, He made us cry.”
Robbie Williams must have had one hell of a day, as he frantically tried to convince his friends and family that he was not dead but alive and well, and all because of an unfortunate coincidence in name with a famous Hollywood actor and the shocking ignorance of some people.
This is not the first time something like this happened. When famous astronaut Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012, social media again came into focus as many confused Twitter users declared Lance Armstrong, the famous cyclist dead instead, because of the similarity of their names. Some went even further, and confused Neil with Louis Armstrong, the famous blues singer who had been dead for decades.
Hopefully, as more and more people become aware of their ignorance and correct their mistakes on social media, the #RIProbbiewilliams hashtag will no longer be trending and Twitter users will instead be paying tribute to the great actor that was Robin Williams instead.