- Image via CrunchBase
I have started writing for Advertising Age‘s blog, Digital Next, and have also become quite a fan myself. Yesterday, Ken Wheaton wrote an article entitled Twitter Is Not Responsible for Iranian Revolution wherein he posits that “If God came down from the heavens today, Twitterers would find a way to take credit for it.” While I appreciate the humor, I felt compelled to share my opinion back in the comments and here’s what I said:
I don’t think Ken Wheaton or Jack Shafer truly grok Internet culture. If God herself came down from Heaven, the denizens of the Internet would want “first post” which is what is going on on Twitter about Iran. We Twitterers don’t take credit for baiting God down from Mount Olympus, but we hunger to be the first person to report it to Twitter. I did a talk yesterday to the ladies of the Woman’s National Democratic Club here in Washington and I made a similar comment: when the big quake finally gets around to hitting San Francisco, there will be a terrible toll for San Franciscans will, upon sensing the mad tremors, rush to report the earthquake and their guess as to the magnitude it’ll be reported to be on the Richter scale before they seek their own personal safety or the safety of their family. The same thing is happening worldwide, especially more visibly in the form of #mumbai and #iranelection.
What do you think? Do you think that we Twitterati fancy ourselves the source of these revolutions and revolts? Do we really fancy ourselves the catalysts or do we simply feel that insane rush when we’re the closest to the source of the news, the natural evolution, in the non geek world, of the competitiveness surrounding getting the first comment reply — the first post — on Slashdot.org.
