Could Twitter have helped?

Today’s events at Virginia Tech University were awful and something you never want to see. Right away I began thinking about how this could have been prevented and how better we could prepare so there would never be a “next time”. After listening to the President of the school, officers and students talk of the days happenings it has become very apparent that a serious lack of communication took place. Two hours and 20 minutes elapsed from the first shooting to the second shooting. An underlying theme from the students has been “not knowing of the first shooting” or “we heard loud banging, thought it was construction”. In this day and age of always being connected while at the same time dealing with a demographic that has all the latest technology and understands how to use it, there is no excuse for these quotes. I believe a technology like Twitter could have played a key part in providing that much needed communication.

There are many many blog posts out there that talk about how Twitter is just a fad, and only used by a select few. In today’s scenario nothing could have worked better, “answers on your phone, Im or right on the web”. The officials talk about how big the campus is, how most of the students commute, and how some were in route to class. A simple message posted to a system like Twitter could have touched all of those instances and perhaps saved some lives.