September 11 2001, New York: The Day Social Media Was Born
Ground Zero Memorial
Now that the frenzy has passed. I feel comfortable to publish these thoughts.
This is my story and it can as well be yours.
It’s been ten years since I am glued to the news.
Ten years since I check with religious regularity news websites, aggregators, feeds, alerts. I feel as I am one of the first people on the planet to find out when major events happen. Fortunately (or unfortunately for my maniac dependency on news) the kind of news that gets your heart pumping only happens every couple months.
I have seen the rise and fall of many social networks.Most have gone, some are still here. And still, every time I open CNN I expect it to have crashed or only to have a simple html feed.
The seed was planted that day. That tragic day made us act as one in shock, disgust, heroism and brotherhood. Ten years later, the need for people to communicate in real time, openly and across all boundaries has become a turning point of the economy and it is changing the face of civilization.
Today I am fortunate enough to have a place I can call home: Manhattan, New York (as well as one in Montreal, Canada). The profound need for social media came on that ill-fated day, September the 11th 2001. That was the day our humanity shivered and embraced the web in the most extraordinary effort to communicate and connect.
We are human because we care for the weak and the unfortunate. We are human because when we are hit and fall down, we stand up and keep on walking. We are human because when we are hurt the whole planet sheds a tear.
We are human because we are New Yorkers.
