There’s no denying that social media has and continues to change the way the world communicates and seeks information, and even in a town like Cochrane it’s growing.
Social media’s grip on the public’s attention was seen a few evenings ago when various communities in Cochrane and the outlying area experienced a power outage. Within a minute, people starting taking to social media – primarily Twitter – to see if anyone knew what was causing the loss of electricity.
The Eagle, as we try to do with any issue that keeps Cochranites informed, did the same, and notified social-media savvy residents that Fortis Alberta was working on restoring power to people in Sunset Ridge, the East End, Glenbow and areas north of town.
After about a half hour, power returned and Fortis indicated that the cause has been a fire.
Fifteen years ago – even 10 years ago – this is not the way the public would have reacted to a power outage.
Before social media sites like Twitter (founded in 2006) and Facebook (founded in 2004) were part of our lives, power outages were just as common, but the difference is that a decade ago, when you lost your power, you really lost your power…there were no Smartphones or iPhones to turn to in your time of desperation.
Ten years ago, we sat there by candlelight, talking and waiting for the television to pop back on. We didn’t really even care why the power went out, just that it went out, and our favourite show was going on without us.
Things are different now. We want to know immediately why the power went out and expect an answer right away. And a lot of time, we get what we want. We get that answer within minutes and we feel a sense of satisfaction because we’re more in the know.
We do, however, have to be careful with what we perceive as fact on Twitter and Facebook. Information you see is both amazingly helpful and astonishingly speculative.
The recent search for the missing Calgary family just northeast of Airdrie has played out on Twitter like a television reality show.
Yesterday there was a report that there were more media personnel at the scene of the search than there were police officers searching, and all the reporters were actively tweeting each and every update in real time.
Whether good or bad, we are a culture that wants its information right away – it’s been like this for a while now, starting with the 24-hour news channel (CNN, 1980), and then moving to the World Wide Web (went public in 1991) and finally social media.
So, next time your power goes out, you hear a strange ‘boom’ or you want to know who placed first in bullriding at the Cochrane Labour Day Rodeo, check out the Eagle’s Twitter or Facebook page…we’ll be as quick as we possibly can.
