How I Realized the “Power of Twitter”

I first discovered how powerful twitter was on November 26 2008. I had signed up months before, and was dabbling, but like most people, I felt lost and confused by it. I was spending the holiday with my in-laws, as I do every year. I spend a lot of time researching, reading, learning and ‘catching up on’ technology and stuff online during that time.

So, on that day I had just discovered and downloaded a twitter application called tweetdeck. When you install tweetdeck, it makes a chirp noise whenever someone that you follow tweets. Since I was only following a few dozen people, it wasn’t ‘chirping’ much. Then it happened…suddenly it started chirping like crazy! Over and over in rapid fire! My husband glared at me saying ‘can you turn that off?’ I remember like it was yesterday!

My laptop was sitting on the kitchen counter, and I went over to see what was going on. I read tweets like “there are at least 5 here in this building at (location I don’t recall)” and “We need help! 3 men down beside me!” I began seeing replies, and more frantic pleas. I was confused and scanning them as they came in searching for an understanding.

Then the answer came. It came in the form of a tweet that read something like:

“Terrorist attack in Mumbai! Gunmen attacking several hotels including Taj Mahal!”

Every hair stood up on my body as I slowly came to understand what was happening. As I realized that I was experiencing live communication with people that I did not know, in a country where I have never been, sharing the minute by minute experience of a horrific attack, I also realized that the TV in the same room was on CNN…I had heard nothing. I had heard nothing on the news, yet there is was unfolding in front of me. I stood riveted, motionless. Unable to tear myself away, I just watched. I could almost see it, even though it was only 140 text characters, going by one by one.

It was some time later, as  I watched the details unfold,  that I heard the first mention of this “Breaking news” on CNN.  Realizing how long I had been watching before it made the news was surreal (to say the least!).

That was when I knew that this was something far more powerful than I ever could have imagined. More powerful than most  realize even today.

(This is how I first became committed to learning everything that I could about twitter, and  passionate about sharing it with others.)

Related TechCrunch article shows twitterstream during attack

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