September 11th came just a few years too soon. Had the horrific
events of the day occurred later in the decade, it’s possible
that many more lives would be saved and that a clearer picture
of what had happened would emerge sooner. When terrorists
crashed jetliners into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center
towers, and a Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001, social
media and citizen news had not yet been introduced. Had tools
like the iPhone, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook existed, the
history of 9/11 could have been permanently altered for the
better. If the passengers aboard multiple hijacked planes had
been able to tweet about what was going on, it wouldn’t take
long for the news to dominate the trending topics list, alerting
the government to what was going on, giving officials on the
ground more time to react and determine what had really taken
place. While Twitter and Facebook are quickly becoming spots to
spread news, rumors have run rampant in the past, notably the
false death of actor Jeff Goldblum