Reflections of 9/11 in the Digital Age

Social media was created to make our lives better—to connect us. 

As I watched the television coverage surrounding the 9/11 memorial ceremonies in New York, Washington, DC, and Shanksville, PA, I was not only flooded with emotions and memories; I was flooded with a sense of connection. 

Social media connected us in a unique way Sunday. It didn't just tell us where our friends were eating lunch or what football team to root for, it offered us glimpses into the memories of our friends, snapshots of horrors 10 years passed. 

I was taken back to places I've never been: classrooms, offices and kitchen tables—each transfixed my imagination and triggered my own memories of where I was when it happened. 

As I steeped in the inter-connectivity of the digital age, my thoughts meandered to another concept ...

"What if social media existed during the 9/11 attacks?"

The thought made me shudder. 

I remember the horror and the sense of tangible fear that gripped me on 9/11, but had social networks like Facebook and Twitter existed, I can only imagine the first-hand accounts of pain, sadness and even death that would have soared through cyberspace.

Our technology was limited in the medium of instantaneous messaging in 2001 but, had it been as advanced as today, it's quite possible that the Internet would be home to thousands of terrifyingly real accounts of despair, pain and loss. The messages would leave a digital footprint, a tiny mark on the vastly growing machine that is the Internet, but I kept thinking, "Would I want to read their messages? Or would I be too afraid?"

Nothing will ever make the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 more real for those physically devastated by the attacks, but for those of us lucky not to have lost someone personally in the attacks, the intimacy of Facebook and Twitter could have captured the destruction in a whole new way—providing images of tragedy and stories of survival. At the same time, the images might also have provided even more stories of bravery and of sacrifice—highlighting the best humankind had to offer on that fateful day. 

I sat with no answer to my questions, but I knew regardless of what images exist online or what social networks connect me, I need none of them to remember what happened on that day.

I'll never forget Mr. Hannon's health class. I'll never forget sitting next to my best friend as we watched our innocence crumble along with those two mighty towers. I'll never forget our classmate weeping in the corner because her father was an airline pilot. 

What I'll remember and what I know is this.

What happened on Sept. 11, 2001 connected us as a people more than anything else ever could.