i just experienced my first earthquake.
and at the same time, began to appreciate the thing that is twitter.It occurred to me the magnitude (no pun intended) of internet communication, when reports came approx. 15 minutes after, about the spread of the earthquake - all through posts on twitter.
People are commenting on the increase of major disasters… which may be true. I would argue that more people are hearing about it. Without twitter, or other forms of new media, people in ottawa would have no idea that people in toronto experienced the tremors at the same time.
Maybe we're experiencing high levels of natural phenomena - I don't have any empirical data to back anything I'm saying up (my sociology profs would be aghast) - but I can say that I find things out WAY more quickly… and I am in a social black hole.
The news reports noted that tremors were felt all over Ontario, in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and some in New York - all from reports on twitter.
Am I happy about the dpread of communication, and that people have opinions? Is it a positive thing that people are networking, and relying on social communities? Sure. Does it scare me that people have the potential to lose out on news (which we all know is skewed, but certainly a little more than a 13 year old sitting in her room… or a 25 year old sitting at her computer in my case. What do I know??) and obtain their information from sources that are not within any guidelines? Maybe.
and then there were the funny people on twitter. hilarity.