Isn't Social Media Amazing?

On Sunday night, I happened to be watching a cable news station airing a re-cap of the Royal Wedding. As it ended, I began to turn the television off, but they interrupted programming with "breaking news" to say the President was going to address the nation at 10:30 p.m. ET. I was intrigued. The talking heads didn't seem to know what President Obama was planning to discuss, perhaps something about Afghanistan, they speculated.

I don't know why, but my first instinct was to check Facebook to see if anyone was commenting about the impending speech there. A few posts alluded to the breaking news and one of my friends even expressed nervousness over what the President might have to say.

Next, I found myself viewing my Twitter feed. By this time, the news stations were reporting that the President's address had something to do with Osama Bin Laden. I started going back and forth between looking at posts and updates on Twitter and Facebook. As the news spread, speculation grew. Finally, President Obama was on television announcing to the world that the United States had killed Osama Bin Laden during a super-secret Navy SEAL mission.

Reactions to the big news were posted immediately in real-time as word spread. It was amazing to read through the very real and sometimes disturbingly honest responses posted on both Facebook and Twitter. There were sentiments of excitement, fear, awe, gratitude, praise, and criticism just to name a few. Some of the posts were upsetting or annoying to read, but they were all raw and open.

I wasn't sure what I was feeling about the breaking news story, so instead I posted a comment that summed up how I was feeling at that very moment reading all the comments on Facebook and Twitter: "Isn't social media amazing?"

It was remarkable for me to realize that I was more interested in reading the reactions of people I know than listening to the talking heads on the news stations. Does anyone else feel the same way?

What interesting times we live in.

P.S. On a related note, check out this wild story about a man who unknowingly live-tweeted the raid on Bin Laden's compound.