Would ‘Cipher in the Snow’ be alive today if he had Facebook friends?

It’s a health class video, shot long before the emergence of cell phones and social media, about an adolescent boy who doesn’t have any friends. One day he gets off the bus, falls in the snow, and dies. The poor kid dies because he has no friends. That’s a terrifying proposition for insecure junior high students.

Would the cipher—his name, according to Wikipeda, is Cliff Evans—have survived if he lived in the age of Facebook? Maybe. Although we spend more time communicating online than we do in person, an infographic from Schools.com suggests social networking helps shy and lonely make new friends.

Looks like poor Cliff was born about 30 years too soon.