What would September 11th 2001 been like with today’s technology?
It’s hard to forget what happened on this day 7 years ago. We will forever remember what we were doing the moment we found out about the attacks on the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
I had slept in that day and heard on my clock radio that a plane had hit a tower in NYC. I quickly ran to the television to see what had happened. I thought a small 1-4 person plane had hit the tower and thought “How did the pilot hit the tower? Do you not see it? Were they drunk?” I wouldn’t have imagined that this was an attack, done on purpose with a big passenger plane. That was not the way we thought pervious to 9/11.
I made my way to work on public transit and before heading into work I stopped to pick up a bagel and coffee at a shop attached to my subway stop. As I walked into the shop I noticed it was oddly filled with people with their jaw dropped and facing the 2 tiny televisions on the wall. That’s when I heard the reporter say “…and when the second plane hit…”, that’s when I knew this was a planned attack and this was not going to be a normal day.
When I got into work (no one noticed that I was REALLY late), I was bombared with requests for mobile numbers of my co-workers who were in the U.S. on business. I got on the phone to call them. When I finally got through they had no clue what was going on as they were in their hotel rooms preparing for their sales meeting. I told them “You should really call your wives and let them know you are ok”, and they responded “yeah, sure, we will call them later.” They really didn’t get how big this was.
I got off the phone with them and called my older sister who was living in California at the time with her husband and my Mother who was visiting. I was the first to tell them what was going on and they thought I was joking! “No seriously, turn on CNN! You will see the video footage of it all”.
I then tried to find more information on the attacks to answer the 1000+ questions in my head. What was really going on? Who did this? Have any other cities been attacked? Are they really flying in people into Toronto hospitals? Is there really an average of 50,000 people in the World Trade Centre at a time? Will my Mother be able to fly home next week?
As you probably remember cnn.com was down. Why? Because their website couldn’t handle the millions of people who were logging on to get onto the site to learn more. I was lucky to get one radio station online but soon enough I couldn’t connect because too many people were also trying to connect to them! Like many others I tried to find another radio station that would let me connect and would help answer my questions. I had no luck. The next day I brought my old radio into work. Just in case something like this happened again I could be informed with my low-tech radio.
So how would September 11th 2001, been different if we had today’s technology?
Twitter.com – Updates on the attack could have been posted on Twitter by news stations and by anyone else who had access to a television that day.
FaceBook.com – FaceBook could have been used to let family members and friends know you were ok through your Facebook “status”. Facebook groups would have been flooded with discussions about the attacks and news updates.
Text Messaging – Although we had the ability to text message back then, North Americans didn’t text message as often as they do today. Most of us didn’t even know how to send a text message! Text messages could have been used to update your friends and family of your status and make alternate arrangements home from work, if need be.
Blackberries www.rim.com – The Blackberry network (although around back then but not widely used) would have been a quick way to send loved ones texts, emails, instant messages and it would have been used to browse the web for updates.
Mobile TV phones – Yes they exist! You could have used your tv phone to view the news on your favourite station.
Blogs - A smart tech savvy person could have set up a blog within seconds and posted updates on the blog. They could have also offered a service for loved ones looking for their family members.
YouTube.com - YouTube would have been FILLED with new home videos and news clippings of the events of the day. YouTube would have also been bombared with visitors curious to see these videos.
The above assumes that all networks do have the capacity for millions of visitors/users today. I for one hope we never have to find out.
What other technology do you think would have changed how we went about our day on September 11th 2001? Feel free to submit your comment.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who were victimized by the attacks.
If you like this post, please consider buying me a coffee.Written by Sandra De Freitas
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