#balloonboy, #SaveBalloonBoy, Falcon, CBB, Denver, Colorado.
In an instant, the Internet was set on fire Thursday afternoon when media began reporting a six-year-old may have been trapped in a UFO-shaped balloon that had broken off and launched into the stratosphere.
It’s a sensationalized story in every way, but the emergence of social media, especially Twitter, meant the story caught on like wildfire.
“I have 99 messages, and all of them are about the boy in the balloon,” said UBC journalism professor Alfred Hermida, who had just logged on to his Twitter feed after class while speaking to 24 hours. “This is the Internet in real time.”
The entire event underlined how Twitter – which Hermida calls the central nervous system of the Internet – has changed the way we receive and share information, 140 characters at a time.
“Traditional media can’t compete in breaking news, I’m more likely to hear about something from my friends first,” Hermida said. “And even if the original source may be a news outlet, it’s spread by people.”
All from a service that was originally created for people who simply wanted to tell friends they’re brushing their teeth, or watching a movie, or any other mundane daily chore.
“That’s one of the perils to predicting the future of technology,” Hermida said. “What people are actually going to do with it is a surprise.”
