The Country That Tweets Together …

I watched the Twin Towers collapse on 9/11 my senior year in high school.

However, I did so several hours after the event. I went through my first two periods of the day not knowing that the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor had occurred shortly after I got off the bus that morning.

I remember sitting down at my desk in my third period history class and watching a giant box television that was strapped to a rusting metal cart. I recall instantly resenting one of my classmates who proudly exclaimed, “I’ve known about this all morning. I like knowing things before anyone else does!”

The country came together that solemn September in the only ways that were available to us back then.   We unified through non-stop television coverage, images of a little girl holding an American flag with tears in her eyes on the cover of Newsweek, hundreds of untelevised community candlelight vigils, and, gasp, newspapers.

My mom couldn’t text her family immediately to ensure that we were all right, because none of us had cell phones. I remember her frantically coming early from work and embracing all of us while we watched in horrified silence the events unfolding on television.

On Sunday, May 1, nearly ten years later, the killing of Osama bin Laden shook the country in much the same way. The man responsible for cratering lower Manhattan and our nation’s heart was finally brought to justice and many of us once again found ourselves huddled around the television screen.

However, so much has changed.

I turned on my television after seeing my friend’s status update on Facebook that the President was going to speak. My first thought was, please tell me we’re not sending American troops into Libya. That thought didn’t last long as the crawl on NBC told me that the news was about Osama bin Laden. That’s when I opened my Twitter page and found out much of the world was wide-awake with me. Once the news was confirmed that he had been killed, I was instantly able to mock CNN on Twitter and argue with friend on the phone that it was a covert military action that had done the job and not 25 predator drones.

I didn’t have to resent anyone for finding out the news hours before I did. The beauty of social media was that we were all finding out together. We were all reacting together as if we were sitting next to each other at the kitchen table, or standing arm and arm in a crowd. The comedians told off-color jokes, New York Times reporters gave us insights into how the paper had literally had to stop the presses on the next day’s issue, and everyday Americans offered sympathy and prayers for our armed forces and those that lost their lives on 9/11.

I was tempted leave the tranquility of my couch and hop on a subway train to witness the impromptu celebrations that had broken out all over the city. I quickly realized that I didn’t have to. Celebrities, politicians, and regular New Yorkers alike were posting pictures, videos, and descriptions of the events over Facebook and Twitter. Actress Minka Kelly, of all people, became my eyes at Ground Zero.

For me, despite the grimness of the occasion, it was social media’s finest hour. An entire country, and I suppose world, met together to discuss the most important news story of the day. On a Sunday night, seemingly everyone woke up, expressed an opinion, and hung around to see what everyone else thought about it. That’s exactly what social media was meant for.

Politicians, pundits, and experts can debate all they want about the impact of social media has on political power, but more than 12.4 million tweets per hour were sent out following the news about bin Laden’s death. That’s 12.4 million opinions, questions, explanations, and news reports mixed in with social commentary, one-liners, and personal musings. It may not have affected power in anyway, but it sure affected something in the way we’re wired (both physically and electronically).

One of the most stirring tweets came from Seattle’s King 5 TV reporter Jim Forman. He happened to be on a flight with a 9/11 widow who broke down and cried when she heard the news. Forman tweeted that the entire cabin comforted her. I don’t know where we’re headed, but I can at take solace in the fact that many of us will be headed there together.

I moved to New York City in large part because I wanted to experience the city’s re-birth following the 9/11 attacks. I wanted to be in the middle of the action whenever the country decided to unify like we did that September ten years ago.

Turns out, all I really needed was a better Internet hookup.