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As someone who exclusively followed this story online, the idea that it can replace traditional media is much overstated. Traditional media might grasp at straw

As someone who exclusively followed this story online, the idea that it can replace traditional media is much overstated. Traditional media might grasp at straws and over-analyze, but you at least get some indication of what is going on. The last hour of the standoff I had no idea what was going on other than the suspect was in a boat. And I was following all of the people you're supposed to. On a personal note, I found myself nervous all of Friday. I did check twitter frequent, refresh a few websites, etc. So from a sanity standpoint, I completely agree with the author and I'll be taking the advice next time. Go do something productive. Get your mind off the horror; you can update yourself tomorrow.

gkoberger 13y ago
I don't think you were following the "all the people you're supposed to", then. In this particular case, Reddit did an awesome job of staying up to date (and correcting misinformation). EDIT: http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_thread_live_updates_of_boston/ http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_th...
- charonn0 13y ago
  I'm not a regular reddit user, but the thread(s) on the manhunt were more accurate than, and often scooped, the CNN talking heads I had on in the background.
- kens 13y ago
  Specifically, the Live Update threads on reddit.com/r/news were amazingly detailed. I'm not normally a reddit user, but the minute-by-minute details went way beyond what I found elsewhere. (Although you end up with a lot of unfiltered stuff - anyone know what's up with the 70-year old man with the trigger switch that was being discussed there?) On the other hand, Fox made me gnash my teeth when a reporter on the street in Boston presented "breaking news" that there would be a press conference in a few hours, which is hardly news let alone breaking news.
  - MatthewPhillips 13y ago
    I disagree. Particularly when nothing is happening, you can't beat a TV crew telling you that nothing is happening (or talking about / repeating old information which is the same thing as saying nothing is happening). When all you have is a twitter stream and a few websites to cmd+r you are left with the feeling that you are missing something. It's the advantage of visual media and aggregation.
- prawn 13y ago
  I followed one extra Twitter user (guy from Global Grind) and listened to a police scanner. That was enough to get me much more information than he was in a boat. There was information about movement, a negotiator, things being called out to him, flashbangs being announced, info about thermal images from a chopper, talk of robots and explosives teams being involved or considered, etc. I didn't need to know all of this, but I found following it all very gripping and wanted to hear the capture played out.
andrewem 13y ago
You can update yourself tomorrow if you live far away. You can update yourself tomorrow if your wife wasn't a few blocks away a couple hours before the bombing happened, and if she didn't leave downtown on foot and unknowingly walk right by the bombers' apartment. You can update yourself tomorrow if the cop who got killed doesn't live three blocks away. You can update yourself tomorrow if the carjacking didn't happen right in front of your office. You can update yourself tomorrow if you're not wondering if someone you know is about to be killed by the bomber. You can update yourself tomorrow if no one has told you to stay inside and has shut down the public transit system. All of which were true for me this week. Otherwise, yes, go about your business. There's no way you can react like this to every tragedy everywhere and retain your sanity. [Also, I was watching local Boston TV, periodically listening to the Boston NPR radio station, and following Twitter (where some people were relaying what was being said on the police radios); all of those can be done online. For the last hour about all that came out was that the guy was in a boat, there were some noises that were maybe gunshots, but not clear who was firing, maybe the cops were using stun grenades, and finally they announced he had been captured. But mostly that was just waiting, because they deliberately weren't giving out information right then, so I'm not surprised you didn't know what was going on, no matter what your news source. By the way, as someone non-local who were "all of the people you're supposed to" follow?]
- rglullis 13y ago
  Look, I understand how nerve-wrecking the events of the whole week were. I no longer live in Cambridge, but I still have family in Boston. I have friends working at MIT, right at the Stata Building. But at the same time, and I think this is the point of the article: do you realize how futile was the "constant updating yourself" through the media? First, no matter how frequent and recent are the updates, there is nothing you can do to change the events past. And second, if you are as close to the unfolding of events as you were, you will have better information than the media anyway. For me at least, much more effective than waiting for the radio was a simple call/text/FB ping on the people I knew and I was worried about.
  - amalcon 13y ago

gkoberger 13y ago

I don't think you were following the "all the people you're supposed to", then. In this particular case, Reddit did an awesome job of staying up to date (and correcting misinformation). EDIT: http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_thread_live_updates_of_boston/ http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cnwms/mods_removed_th...

charonn0 13y ago
I'm not a regular reddit user, but the thread(s) on the manhunt were more accurate than, and often scooped, the CNN talking heads I had on in the background.
kens 13y ago
Specifically, the Live Update threads on reddit.com/r/news were amazingly detailed. I'm not normally a reddit user, but the minute-by-minute details went way beyond what I found elsewhere. (Although you end up with a lot of unfiltered stuff - anyone know what's up with the 70-year old man with the trigger switch that was being discussed there?) On the other hand, Fox made me gnash my teeth when a reporter on the street in Boston presented "breaking news" that there would be a press conference in a few hours, which is hardly news let alone breaking news.
- MatthewPhillips 13y ago
  I disagree. Particularly when nothing is happening, you can't beat a TV crew telling you that nothing is happening (or talking about / repeating old information which is the same thing as saying nothing is happening). When all you have is a twitter stream and a few websites to cmd+r you are left with the feeling that you are missing something. It's the advantage of visual media and aggregation.
prawn 13y ago
I followed one extra Twitter user (guy from Global Grind) and listened to a police scanner. That was enough to get me much more information than he was in a boat. There was information about movement, a negotiator, things being called out to him, flashbangs being announced, info about thermal images from a chopper, talk of robots and explosives teams being involved or considered, etc. I didn't need to know all of this, but I found following it all very gripping and wanted to hear the capture played out.

andrewem 13y ago

You can update yourself tomorrow if you live far away. You can update yourself tomorrow if your wife wasn't a few blocks away a couple hours before the bombing happened, and if she didn't leave downtown on foot and unknowingly walk right by the bombers' apartment. You can update yourself tomorrow if the cop who got killed doesn't live three blocks away. You can update yourself tomorrow if the carjacking didn't happen right in front of your office. You can update yourself tomorrow if you're not wondering if someone you know is about to be killed by the bomber. You can update yourself tomorrow if no one has told you to stay inside and has shut down the public transit system. All of which were true for me this week. Otherwise, yes, go about your business. There's no way you can react like this to every tragedy everywhere and retain your sanity. [Also, I was watching local Boston TV, periodically listening to the Boston NPR radio station, and following Twitter (where some people were relaying what was being said on the police radios); all of those can be done online. For the last hour about all that came out was that the guy was in a boat, there were some noises that were maybe gunshots, but not clear who was firing, maybe the cops were using stun grenades, and finally they announced he had been captured. But mostly that was just waiting, because they deliberately weren't giving out information right then, so I'm not surprised you didn't know what was going on, no matter what your news source. By the way, as someone non-local who were "all of the people you're supposed to" follow?]

rglullis 13y ago
Look, I understand how nerve-wrecking the events of the whole week were. I no longer live in Cambridge, but I still have family in Boston. I have friends working at MIT, right at the Stata Building. But at the same time, and I think this is the point of the article: do you realize how futile was the "constant updating yourself" through the media? First, no matter how frequent and recent are the updates, there is nothing you can do to change the events past. And second, if you are as close to the unfolding of events as you were, you will have better information than the media anyway. For me at least, much more effective than waiting for the radio was a simple call/text/FB ping on the people I knew and I was worried about.
- amalcon 13y ago