I have never been so humbled or in awe—and this has been accomplished with 140 characters. I have twiddled with Twitter for a month or so. Wired Magazine said everyone should twitter, it is the thing of the future. Well, Wired is my Bible, so I followed along. And then I languished on there. It was like walking into a room where everyone was milling around and you had no idea what they were doing. Finally I tweeted, then tweeted again, then joined a twibe. All the while, through BNO information was coming at me before it hit CNN, or in many cases, even the professional news web sites.
Okay, now I was beginning to understand what that little crowd in the corner was doing. I joined with a few others hunched over keyboards writing fiction in 140 characters. Good writing practice. But is this what Wired was referring to?
A few days ago CNN reported elections in Iran with suspect outcome then returned to telling viewers how to cope with analog TV’s. Up pops #Iranelections on Twitter groups. Suddenly Twitter reschedules its maintenance to coincide with nighttime in Iran so citizens could continue to twitter. Curious about the situation, knowing reporters had basically been shut down and were staying in safe places, as advised, I thought I’d see what this was about. What it is about is revolutionary. Over 221,744 tweets in one hour at its peek. Pictures of protests and violence not seen even on TV, human voices and warnings in real time. I am in awe — truly.
Perhaps there will not be an Iranian revolution, but there has already been an information revolution. The possibilities of the cutsie-named Twitter, started in the bedroom of a couple is giving me shivers. Now I understand.
I really like Twitter. It has a lot to offer, even if you have nothing to say. You can sit back and watch it all happen, like a ticker tape, or you can jump in.
During the November elections, I monitored it closely so I could get results for Prop 8 in California. I made a lot of friends that day and over the following days. I viewed pictures of demonstrations and got to know some people.
It’s also wonderful when something happens far away and you want information quickly. I get tweets about earthquakes far away and all sorts of stuff. I haven’t followed the Iranian news, or any news for the past month but I will get back to it.
When I go on my trip in October, I’ll tweet from Australia! Of course everyone here will be asleep! But I will know that I tweeted from there!
Very, very cool post, Anhinga. I’m not yet part of the twitter wave myself, but this was a very cogent explantion. Thanks. And sometime we must talk about Wired, too.
I really don’t quite understand it all just yet (Twitter) even though I participate in my own small lame way. The part about Iran, however, gives me a taste of hope in this old world after all, and for that I am grateful. Let the people be heard! (but don’t forget to educate the masses
) I believe in democracy, but I believe education is the key to mankind’s survival.
I could not agree with you more, Tabbie, about education. With the state of education in our own country and the lack of understanding of history and our constitution we are not on firm ground. I am pulling for the Iranians and hope they have a peaceful victory.