The Need To Share.

The events in Boston have remained heavy on my heart today.  I continue to read articles, watch videos, listen to phone calls.

One thing amazes me through all of it.

The need to share.

As someone who is deeply interested and invested in social media and communications/marketing, it has been absolutely amazing to see the way social media affected the events of yesterday.

I, along with many others, found out about the event from Facebook. I saw several posts saying "how terrible," "thoughts and prayers," and "I cannot believe it." It wasn't until I saw one that read "Bombing at the Boston Marathon? What is the world coming to?" that I realized something seriously wrong had gone on. I took to the Internet and began to watch a live telecast from CNN. I was drawn to my computer screen and almost obsessed with the details. It was just one of those moments where as much as you don't want to know, you do.

As soon as the first bomb went off Twitter and Facebook exploded (OK, too much?) with people expressing their thoughts, fears and sorrows. The exact minute that the first bomb went off, there was a Twitter user who posted the photo, questioning what was going on. Within 5 minutes there were thousands of tweets, photos and videos using the hashtags #Boston, #BostonMarathon and #PrayersforBoston.  Vine videos, which were very gruesome, also began surfacing.

What is it that makes people grab their phones to capture video and photos, even when they may be in danger? It is the need to share. Everyone wants to share what they have seen, and wants to see what everyone else has seen. Thanks to social media, and this footage, police have many different angles of what happened and who was around when the bombs went off.

Many news stations are using tweets and posts from social media sites as the photos in their articles.

One of the most amazing things I have found on social media in relation to this event is the use of social media from the Boston Police Department. They used their account to give instructions to people in the area of the bombings, ask for photos and videos to assist in their investigation, keep the injured/dead totals accurate, and even provide information relating to the JFK situation, which was briefly believed to be connected but was discovered to be just a fire.  The fact that Boston police felt confident that social media was a viable way to communicate with millions of people is incredible.  It just shows the credibility social media can have. Granted, BPD has a verified Twitter account (meaning the owner and operator went through background checks and are who they say they are) which adds to their credibility in a huge way.  Other Twitter users were posting fake, irrelevant and wrong information and feeding into rumors that were incorrect. Once it was announced that one of the fatalities was an 8 year old child a photo of a young girl began circulating. The photo claimed to be of the young girl (who was not a girl at all!) who was killed by the bomb. Putting a photo with the facts causes lots of emotion and many people were deeply saddened by this image. At least 20 of my friends shared this fake image, not knowing any better.  However, even after all that being said, the main thing found on social media sites in connection with Boston is support.

Millions are reaching out and offering their support in so many different ways. People in Boston were offering up rooms for families, especially those that have extra beds and live near the hospitals where victims were located.  #PrayersforBoston was trending, and still is trending, all over the world.

Google released Google person finder (a google.org project) that allowed people to search people they knew that were in Boston during the marathon. They could read information either posted from people who were in contact with them or read direct posts from people themselves. Some posts read "I am okay." "I am staying with students from Emerson College." "I have returned home safe." If you haven't seen it yet, check out the site. It provides so much information and more than likely comforted so many people during all of this. Google Person Finder - Boston

Social media is making waves and really capturing the world of journalism, marketing and communication and who knows where it will go in the future. All of this is because people have a need to share.

Goodnight

xo

Time.

So tonight I hoped to be doing a positive  upbeat blog about the yummy dinner I made. However, I do not feel that I can ignore the events that have taken place today.

As I was sitting here, taking everything in and really trying to sort through it all and decide how to write about the horrible disaster at the Boston Marathon, a song came on through my Pandora that shed some light onto everything for me. I want to share the link and the lyrics with you. The song is Time by Hootie & The Blowfish.  Time on Youtube.

Time, 
Why you punish me? 
Like a wave crashing into the shore, you wash away my dreams. 
Time, 
Why you walk away? 
Like a friend with somewhere to go, you left me cryin' 

(Bridge) 
Can you teach me 'bout tomorrow and all the pain and sorrow, 
Runnin' free? 
'Cause tomorrow's just another day, and I don't believe in time. 

Time, 
I don't understand. Children killin' in the street, dyin' for the color of a rag. 
Time, 
Take their red and blue. Wash them in the ocean make them clean, maybe their mothers won't cry tonight 

(Chorus) 
Time is wastin', time is walking. 
You ain't no friend of mine. 
I don't know where i'm going. 
I think i'm out of my mind, thinkin' about time. 

And if I die tomorrow, yeah, just lay me down to sleep. 

Time, 
You left me standin' there. Like a tree growin' all alone. The wind just stripped me bare, stripped me bare. 
Time, 
The past has come and gone. The future's far away. Well now only lasts for one second, one second. 

You ain't no friend of mine. 
I don't know where i'm goin. 
I think i'm out of my mind. 

Time without courage and time without fear, is just wasted, wasted, wasted time, oh. 

So much of our lives are based on time. The events of today were based on time. All those runners had on their minds were time. They had no idea what would happen in time.

The time was 2:50pm. Where were you at that time? I was sitting at home, watching the news stories unfold. Some other people were not so lucky, but were watching it unfold right in front of them. Others cannot remember exactly what happened at 2:50 pm today, and others do not know what time it is right now.

You see, at 2:50pm today innocent family members and friends were watching their loved ones compete against time. A marathon is an individual event, based purely on time. You race against a clock, against your goals, and against your personal best. Some people today were racing away from an explosion, and away from danger, and racing so much more than time.

Some people were in the location of the bombs at 2:45pm, but by 2:50 had continued moving along the race route to be far enough away to avoid impact. These people had time on their side.

Time can change so much. Why 2:50pm? Who is behind this horrific event and why did they chose 2:50pm? Is there significance  Or does it have more to do with the fact that it was 4 hours and 9 minutes into the marathon? Did someone know who would be crossing through around that time? Did they know who would already be done and gone? Or did they know that a large group would come in around now? They did know the streets of Boston would be packed, and knew that many people would be affected.

There are so many questions that may not be answered for hours, or days, or longer. It is all in time's hands now. All we can do is wait to see what is discovered.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all the friends and families, victims and rescue crews, and also to anyone that was in Boston today that witnessed this horrible event. Time wasn't on your side.