> Because at the end of the day, I gained nothing I couldn't have gotten in reading an article at 11pm for five minutes. That's not strictly true. If all you d

> Because at the end of the day, I gained nothing I couldn't have gotten in reading an article at 11pm for five minutes. That's not strictly true. If all you do is watch "real news" on TV all day, perhaps, because they just regurgitate the same information over and over. I was able to feel more involved with what was actually happening. To feel more connected with people who were affected by the bombings. To see what went on, and to empathize with people. Rather than consume the same 5 pictures shown on the news over and over, there were hundreds, thousands of pictures to look at, lots of people telling their stories, people posting pictures from their days that let me be immersed in their experiences, etc. I also got to witness the heroic acts of everyone in the vicinity, those injured themselves, who overcame their instinct to run and saved lives. The death toll would've easily climbed to 10 if these people hadn't immediately acted selflessly -- stories not widely talked about in the news. I'm astonished at how incredible some of these people are. The end result is that I feel connected to my Boston brethren, and feel deeply empathetic with those who have a loss, and want to help. You don't get that sense of community out of a 5 minute story after everything is said and done. So my time doesn't feel wasted at all. I'm a human, not an information processing robot.