An hour ago, a few tweets had eyewitness accounts and suspicions and questions flying around the Twitter. Was it a jumper? A bomb? A crazy gunman who had fired shots? A husband holding his wife hostage? In the Flatiron building? While I am in full support of receiving news on Twitter (and getting it sooner than anywhere else!), it’s also a reminder that it’s a double-edged sword, because the rumor mill that is Twitter resembles a game of telephone, in which there are often resemblances to truth but things that just got sincerely twisted.
Even when people know what’s true and what’s not quite accurate, they still have to build on all of the information to participate in the conversation. See, this is tagged #flatiron!
Hey, I’m all for it. It’s just crazy to watch a few tweets plus hardcore police involvement snowball into something epic.
Jen Bokoff 