Twitter- going places never imagined

Much has been said about this service called Twitter. It’s essentially a microblogging, opt-in platform where you subscribe to people and get their updates delivered in feed form. When you post, those people following you receive your updates. Now that those details are out of the way…

November 26th through 29th were horrifying days in Mumbai, India. The city was in disarray as terrorists had taken over and bombed trainstations and hotels. The center of conflict was in the Taj Mahal Hotel. Within, guests had barricaded themselves in rooms, the kitchen, and other hiding spots. Some communicated via cell phone calls, texts, and emails, but a major outlet was Twitter. Hostages sent tweets out to inform loved ones and co-workers that they were ok, if they were injured, places to stay away from, and supplies that their hospital needed. By now, most of the original tweets are so buried that they are hard to find.

Now take what I’ve just relayed about Mumbai, and imagine how twitter would have affected incidents and our responses to them..

Invasion of Poland/France – “Uh.. guys, German tanks just rolled past the border, run!”

Pearl Harbor – “Japanese planes just flew overhead.. strange.. Seem to be heading for Pearl Harbor”

D-Day – “wow”

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – “So.. the city next to me just blew up. I’m thinking we should take cover”

And thats just WW2. Its weird to think how history could have been drastically altered by one simple web application… Keep that in mind next time your thumbs tap away on your phone updating your status..

(Edit: I actually did have this finished last night, but forgot to push the Publish button.. doh!)