Me+and+My+LCD's


 * BREAKING NEWS: Received faster than we can talk about it.**

Right now my roommates and I are in the living room watching the news/President Obama’s national address about Osama Bin Laden’s death. It took no more than 2 minutes for everyone to flood into the living room from the different spots of our 6-bedroom house. I got a tweet on my Blackberry while I was outside on the porch, followed immediately by a text from my friend. One roommate got an email on his iPod touch, another got a phone call. My roommate who lives on the third floor came running down the stairs to tell us the news—found everyone watching TV—and said with a tone of lost excitement, “Oh…you guys have heard.” None of us communicated verbally, and we all “heard” (read) the breaking news.

//Thank you iDevices, laptops, Blackberrys, smart-whatevers.//

I can see 9 LCD screens from my spot on the couch. Aside from the news, this is a pretty typical night. Btw I just checked and was able to get the report about ½ a second before my roommates watching the speech on TV by streaming Obama’s live speech on the New York Times website. There is no denying that today is historic, but I think much of the news will also focus on the technology that enabled the U.S. army to locate Bin Laden with Predator Drones, the inundation of the Internet: Twitter; Facebook; Reddit; Every formal news site. I’m amazed by the nearly instantaneous flow of such important information.

The Daily Beast already posted breaking tweets and reactions- top trending topic obviously.

Sometimes I feel like all our screens and devices can isolate us from our families and friends—make us alone while together—as everyone consumes consumes consumes media and constantly checks multiple live feeds, each of us in one or more parallel reality at the same time. But tonight I have hope that technology can also help to bring us together, maybe even help cooperation, as there is no more fighting over the remote, “computer time," or what to listen to. As we were all watching the news, we were saying “Hey, look at this tweet,” “Look at what I found on Reddit,” etc. and gathering around different screens, being together, consuming, sharing, connecting online and in RL.

I also have anxiety about the power/potential of technology and data etc.

Others have conspiracy theories about the authenticity of Osama's videos (via video editing technology)

I wonder if Bin Laden was logged into Foursquare, or if he accidentally enabled location on his tweets…

Also- Just look at President Obama’s Bin Landen tweet number: media type="custom" key="9266366" width="89" height="89" align="left"


 * Update 5:20 p.m. 5/2/11**: (via CNN) Turns out that the news of Bin Laden's death set a new Twitter record:

media type="custom" key="9274322"

http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life/is-technology-tearing-apart-family-life.aspx http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/fashion/01FAMILY.html?pagewanted=1&sq=cyber%20cultural%20studies&st=cse&scp=2 http://www.ps3hax.net/showthread.php?s=e8dd553e606550a8606300de8ad58491&p=196868#post196868
 * Other sources:**