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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

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 14y 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 14y ago
  So, for the record, I live a few blocks from the bombing suspects' apartment, and I work less than a block from where the MIT officer was shot. Without following timely updates, I would have had no idea of the following: - That I was asked to help keep the streets clear - More specifically, that I should not go to work - Though it turned out that there was no need for a controlled detonation, if one had occurred less than a mile from my home, the news reports are the only way I'd know what it was. I could have harassed the officers, but I wasn't going to do that either way. - Later, that it was OK to leave my home - Still later, that the manhunt was over and my plans in Watertown this morning could proceed as normal This is all real, actionable information for me that was reported correctly. I think on the average, I'm better off with that information, even if there was also some garbage mixed in. Also, what would have happened if the owner of the boat hadn't been following breaking news when the stay-home request was lifted? The bombing suspect would likely have died where he was and not been found until morning. Everyone's better off for that sequence of events.

rglullis 14y 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 14y ago
So, for the record, I live a few blocks from the bombing suspects' apartment, and I work less than a block from where the MIT officer was shot. Without following timely updates, I would have had no idea of the following: - That I was asked to help keep the streets clear - More specifically, that I should not go to work - Though it turned out that there was no need for a controlled detonation, if one had occurred less than a mile from my home, the news reports are the only way I'd know what it was. I could have harassed the officers, but I wasn't going to do that either way. - Later, that it was OK to leave my home - Still later, that the manhunt was over and my plans in Watertown this morning could proceed as normal This is all real, actionable information for me that was reported correctly. I think on the average, I'm better off with that information, even if there was also some garbage mixed in. Also, what would have happened if the owner of the boat hadn't been following breaking news when the stay-home request was lifted? The bombing suspect would likely have died where he was and not been found until morning. Everyone's better off for that sequence of events.