We live in amazing times

[PeaceNikki]

http://gizmodo.com/5483990/cellphones-become-our-comfort-objects-during-disaster

Two days after a 8.8 magnitude earthquake displaced them from their homes and separated them from dear ones, people gathered at a fire-station in Concepcion, Chile to charge their cellphones—their comfort objects during this disaster.

Chile was becoming a trending topic on Twitter before even the fastest newscasters got a chance to talk about Saturday's earthquake, thanks to many hastily posted Tweets—most of which likely came from mobile devices. Tweets, text messages, emails, calls, voicemails—everything flew across the networks, draining phones and granting people some comfort and peace. Just hearing a familiar voice or reading words of assurance—knowing that your mobile device links you to the world, to family, and to much needed aid—makes one heck of a difference.

We need food. We need medication. We need a hand to pull us out of the rubble. But we also need a little gadget that lets us cry out to the world so that everyone else has a chance to tell us that it'll be ok.

I've seen people on DU claim that they'd never be oppressed by having a cell phone and others who mock Twitter. The reality is that technology has, in so many ways, brought us closer to one another and allows us to experience amazing, wonderful, horrible, things with people all over the world. Things we would never get to experience in our own lives. It can allow us to reach out for help and support and share emotions and information. We mock what we don't understand, but what baffles me most is that some of the people who do this use DU in the very same way others use cell/smart phones, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

If the events in Haiti and Chile and the aftermath of the elections in Iran weren't enough to prove how cool it is to live in the information age, I don't know what is.

:)

[HeresyLives]

1. Yup, I think it's wonderful.

I don't know how I got along without these things....and the best part is, in 20 years we'll look back on this time as a dark age of communication and wonder how people got along while so UNconnected. :)

[PeaceNikki]

3. The ability to blast out information to millions of people in real time

and collectively view it by topic on Twitter is really pretty amazing. People claim that Twitter is vanity and that they don't 'want to know when their friends poop' have NO concept of how to collect lists of remarkable people to follow or use hash tags and trends to gather information.

It's really pretty cool.

[Echo In Light]

2. Had the technology been as widely accessible 30 yrs ago, the US would be VERY different now

[HeresyLives]

4. History would have been changed completely.

It always amuses me that when any event occurs, pretty much anywhere in the world...we have a youtube of it or something within minutes.

[RandomKoolzip]

5. Thank you for this.

:thumbsup:

[PeaceNikki]

6. Hey, you!!

:hi: :hug: :nice affectionate hug that turns into angry ...:

[RandomKoolzip]

7. If ONLY Du had that smiley, I'd be around here much more often.

Sure would liven up the gun forum, i'll tell ya that much. :hi:

[Uncle Joe]

8. This reminds me of a clip shown of a woman testifying before Congress.

She testified that as her Toyota's brakes went out and it accelerated on the Interstate, fearing death, she called her husband and said I know you can't help me but I had to hear your voice.

Thanks for the thread, PeaceNikki.

[PeaceNikki]

9. Yeah, I saw that.

And I can relate.