Social Media’s Day of Remembrance

September 11th is an unforgettable date that causes most Americans to stop and remember the sad events that happened on that day. For hours on end the world was focused on the media trying to get an understanding of what exactly was happening. The attacks that day stole the lives of nearly 3,000 people in the Pentagon building in Washington, DC, the crash of United Airlines flight 93 in rural Pennsylvania and the World Trade Center in New York City.

On that day we realized the full-scope of the media and the power that our technology has to communicate with each other. Today, eight years later, we have come to use social media to connect with others and share our memories. We have a medium that easily conveys our fear, anger and sadness in regards to the September 11th tragedy.

Twitter is one of the more prominent  social media sites that users have taken to. There are numerous hashtags being used to cite tweets that speak on the emotions of those taking time to remember what happened. For example, the #whereiwas and the #remember911 hashtags are being attached to tweets where people state where they were when they first got the news that the country was under attack and/or how they will never forget that day. Hashtags like #project2996 and #neverforget are being used to name those they knew that were killed in the attacks. New York, God Bless America and Sept 11 have become trending topics reminding all Twitter users the reality of that day, and the fact that this day is still important to many.

CBS has shared their videos of the memorial service on YouTube, like President Obama’s speech at the pentagon and the moment of silence observed at the White House. Still other users have uploaded their memorial videos.

Many members of the Facebook community have dedicated their statuses to the memory of those that died eight years ago.

One social media user stated, “The technology available today has allowed me to remember 9/11 in a more meaningful, constructive way than ever before.”

It has indeed been a great way for all of us to share memories, commemorate the day and has reminded us that although we are all very different that as Americans we can come together as one nation!

Social Media has changed the landscape of how we communicate with one another and it sends a reminder that although we are moving towards our future, we must remember our past!

September 21, 2009