Using Technology to Cope with Terrorism :: War Terror Essays

Using Technology to Cope with TerrorismEach one of us has our own anomalous story of where we were when we learned of the attack on the World Trade Center towers. Its a story weve told to friends and a story well continue to tell as this event transforms from a living reality to a historical one. Some were awoken by roommates, others informed by colleagues passing through the hall, and others happened to turn on the video recording and watch with repugnance as the World Trade Center towers burned and finally collapsed. As word spread, though, Americans became united in their need to know simply what had happened. We turned on the television, we paused to listen to radios filtering out of cars, we visited Internet news sources again and again, clutching and grasping for facts, hoping that some sort of clarity would calm us. Hour after hour we sat by the television trying to make sense of it all. Unconfirmed reports were treated as facts by frantic news anchors, sketchy reports of hijacking were announce and then confirmed. The news changed by the minute. A nation in shock began calling loved ones across the country, just to check in and to share the horror together. Cell phone networks were inoperable in many areas of the country, not just in New York. Web-traffic became so congested that viewing CNNs web varlet became virtually impossible. We used these fleeting news sources as a way to grasp reality. But for many it didnt become a reality until we sawing machine it the way our parents and grandparents had in years past black and white banner headlines announcing the tragedy in a format that couldnt be refreshed, revised, or corrected. It was permanent, and it was true. The unacceptable had happened.And for those of us outside of New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. we used the technology around us to begin to comprehend. Trying to understand what it was like when the building collapsed, we listened to and read uncounted witness testimonies. Thou gh weary with despair we felt that it was our duty to experience the agony of watching the collision and the collapse over and over again, as if we could excuse some of the New Yorkers suffering by taking some of it on as our own. We watched around-the-clock coverage from ground zero we contributed to discussion boards and listservs on the Internet, we held illimitable discussions among family members and friends.