So I was trying to think of a historical event where the social networking technology, like twitter, would really change the course of history. Obviously, there’s about a million different events that would have played out differently if instant communication by average citizens was possible such as the Japanese internment during WWII, the Vietnam War, or even the Battle of Gettysburg. One event that I thought would have been particularly different was the fabled midnight ride of Paul Revere. While most historians maintain this probably didn’t happen, it still would have been dramatically different if all the colonists, not to mention Revere himself, had twitter or face book accounts which they were constantly updating. Think of the implications! First of all, every American would have known the British were coming, probably before the British even knew they were coming themselves. Not only would Revere not have to make such an epic journey, more people would have been ready to repel the invasion, and they would have been better organized and might have turned the tide of the war from the very beginning. Also, Americans could send propaganda around to the different colonies to gain support and expose British loyalists. But, what if the British also check their twitter feed! Then they would have known all the colonists knew of their impending invasion and they might have delayed or gotten reinforcements. They would have detailed records of colonial hotspots and they would know key colonists by name and location. Of course, all this could be avoided however if the colonists just made their accounts private...
So, can you think of anything else that might have happened differently if the colonists had been properly utilizing their social networks? Also, do you think events in the past are better left alone to play out as they already have, or are we missing out by not developing time-travel to make our past (as a species, not a nation), as perfect as possible. For example, should we stop genocide?
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The thing with rewriting the past is you don't know how it will affect the future. I mean, if you took penicillin back to the 14th century to nip that pesky bubonic plague in the bud, who knows what might have happened. I mean what if there was a potential tyrant that was killed in infancy, just to give one example.
ReplyDeleteTwitter might have made miscommunication the byword of the day because you have to be so succinct. Who knows what would have gotten lost in the message.
I believe if the social networking aspect would have been utilized more colonists would have joined the cause for independence. In the video we watched Shirkey points out the success of the Obama campaign. People became aware, and liked what they saw. Groups, web communities, and web-based non-profits could have aired their case for independence GLOBALLY.
ReplyDeleteMore domestically speaking, the Sons of Liberty could have conducted covert operations around all the colonies, and sent out messages without worrying about British interception. It's definitely interesting to think about what could have happened...
To tackle your "time travel" question, I would love if that existed... but not so we could make our nation as "perfect as possible." History is what makes us and we should learn from the mistakes and achievements of our ancestors so we can help build a wonderful world for our descendants. Trish is right you have no idea what you be affecting if you tried to "fix" something. Ever watch the Butterfly Effect? It's just bad news. But like I said, I'm all for time travel and watching history LIVE as it's happening. That would be wonderful... the history lovers in us can still dream. :o)
ReplyDeleteI love the thought of Paul Revere just sitting at home in his PJ's "tweeting" about the British...
ReplyDeleteI think it would be awesome to go back in time...however, we learn from our mistakes (even though they tend to repeat themselves...). If you changed one thing in the past, you would have to change multiple things. It would be a snowball effect.
We have technology today and students will look back 100 yeras from now and think of all the things we could do differntly with the technology they have then. I agree with Lindsey...it would be awesome to go back and see some things as they happen!