“The most powerless I felt was when I was watching people jump to their death on TV and there was nothing I could do about it,” said George W. Bush, reflecting on the devastating attacks which took place in our country 10 years ago. September 11, 2011, reverberates through the hearts of Americans all over. The nation stood united on the 10-year anniversary just as they did after the deadly attack took place.
Of course, we have evolved as a country. Even with such tragedy, life must go on, and we have developed since. This is especially true in the world of technology. Take a look at Facebook or Twitter, both appearing post 9/11. How has the breadth of technology changed the way we communicate, especially in a time of crisis? Cell phones were an intricate part of the 9/11 tragedy; had we had Twitter, what could have been posted? “I’m in a high-jacked plane #pleasesendhelp.”
However, during the 10-year anniversary, Twitter did make an appearance, and not one that many are exceedingly pleased with. A group called The Script Kiddies hacked NBC’s Twitter page and sent scare messages about a suspected attack on the Ground Zero site. Of course, this ignited panic, until NBC was able to shut down their page and calm any fears that arose.
This singular incident demonstrates how quickly social and new media can spread. Of course, this moment ended up being nothing and was quickly resolved, but what does that say for our society. (View the comments on the article from CNN to see how others responded.) Especially when something is negative or frightening, people will eat up the information because, if it comes from Twitter, it must be true.
I am not trying to beat any dead horses here on the dangers of social media or the over-use of new technologies, but when someone can spark panic in such a manner (through use of a sensitive issue), there is a severe problem on our hands. New new media has the ability to help us do so many great things, but it also has the potential--through hacking and hackers--to put us in danger.
Cyber bullying and sexual predators aside, new media connects people all over the world. If someone decided that their facebook status should read “Gonna blow up the castle,” there may be trouble. This status may refer to the Mario Brothers game (Bowser’s Castle), but to someone unaware, they may find it an attack on Buckingham Palace. Instant SWAT teams, FBI, and CIA investigations. Just because we have these technologies at our fingertips does not mean we should do the first thing that comes to our head. To quote Aunt May, “With great power (CPU), comes great responsibility.”
Ossad, J. (2011, September 9). Hacked NBC Twitter feed falsely reports NYC attack. CNNTech. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com
Kyle, Great post and I couldn't agree more with the fact that social media can spread like wildfire, especially when the when its negative. For some reason this news always seems to move faster than positive news. This is a problem that one person can cause such a stir over a comment. It was on an extremely sensitive issue, so that didn't help matters at all.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we as readers always feel that we need to believe everything we read. We know the internet is sometimes full of crap, even when it comes from a reliable source. Time will tell how far this issue will go, but a lot like everything else, I don't believe its going to go away anytime soon.