In the streets of lower Manhattan, the fields of Pennsylvania, and the memorials of the United States’s capital, the events marking the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks were somber but uneventful, despite reports last week about a “credible but unconfirmed” terrorist plot.
Online, things were anything but still, with activity ranging from millions of “never forget” status updates on social networks to last week’s hacking of the NBC news Twitter feed, which resulted in phony messages about a putative terrorist attack.
People headed online Sunday to do everything from sharing their own personal recollections of where they were 10 years ago when the first plane struck the World Trade Center to speculate how the day would have been different if social media was as pervasive in 2001 as it is in 2011.
Others noted that the aftermath of 9/11 was the period in time when blogging went mainstream and changed news coverage and commentary almost as radically as the attacks changed airport security.
More than anything, perhaps, the 10 years of technological advances in online communications gave people a sense of power to connect, share, and remember in ways they could not have done even just a few years ago.
“Someone proposed we ‘cut the chatter’ during to honor the 9/11 victims. I say: NO! Today, of all days, is a day to ‘speak our truths,’ to listen, and connect across the globe. It occurred via broken connections,” Michael Noel Erickson posted as his Facebook status. “To honor the lost, I feel we must make connections, deeply hear each other across the world and repair the breach between cultures that caused this.”
Others chose to remember what had been lost: a Storify post that was getting loads of traffic collected memories of what people were doing on September 10, 2001.
“I was in NYC, preparing to leave for my Fulbright year #onSept10, said to a friend, ‘don’t screw anything up while I’m gone’,” Kate Powers said in a Tweet that was included in the collection.
When Osama bin Laden was killed in May, fans at a nationally-televised, Sunday night baseball game began chanting “USA” a full 90 minutes before President Obama made the official announcement. Ten years ago, however, people still relied on the mainstream media for the most recent information, and not everyone had a cellphone.
The business of reporting, too, has changed dramatically, as screenshots from news organizations on September 11, 2001, show. There was no Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr to report that day’s events, and even the mainstream news sites seem rudimentary by today’s standards.
“How far the medium has come,” Sasha Koren tweeted.
Not everyone, however, took comfort in the widespread media coverage of the tenth anniversary, which was not as easy to avoid as turning off the television and moving the Sunday newspaper straight from the porch to the recycling bin.
“Have successfully avoided all #911 coverage today. So glad there was no real social media at the time,” Rory Brown tweeted Sunday afternoon.
In a Facebook status update, Sergio Aguirre suggested all the online attention is exactly what the hijackers of those four, ill-fated planes had wanted.
“I know everyone mite hate me for this but everyone that puts something about 9/11 is only helping and giving the terrorists what they want and that is social media,” he wrote. “(E)very post just makes them stronger…so please don’t help them cause I would hate to go to another funeral.”
For some, however, tenth-anniversary reflections were simply a way to remember that life has indeed gone on.
“Thinking today about 911, the victims and families who lost loved ones. Still so sad,” the band Texas band Eisley posted on its Facebook fan page. “ In other news, we’ll be @ SLO Brewing Company in San Luis Obispo, CA tonight…Hope to see some of you there. Cheers!”
Photo by _PaulS_
