How Would 9/11 Play Out in Social Media Age?

About three months ago, the 22nd anniversary of September 11 attacks was marked by little, if any, fanfare. This was in sharp contrast to the first 10-12 anniversaries which were major public events. While a good part of this diminution of this event has to do with the passage of time as well as the costly, disastrous and failed occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan which followed- one aspect of 9/11 remains relevant. It was the first major disaster in American history that was televised and reported on in almost real time. It also occurred near the beginning of mass internet usage in this country. Sure.. FakeBook, InstaThot, Snapshit, Twatter and TikTok etc hadn’t yet been developed but instant messaging software was pretty common and the first smartphones (Blackberry messengers) were not uncommon.

It is my opinion that the amount of media attention (mainstream and internet) lavished on that spectacle made this event far more notable and consequential than it would otherwise have been. Even today we can find multi-hour long compilations of certain events of the day on YouTube, such as the aircraft crashes into and collapse of the twin WTC towers. And this got me thinking.. how would a similar event (in magnitude and spectacle) play out in the hyper-saturated and ubiquitous social media environment of today? Not only do we have multiple social media platforms with their specializations (photos, videos, clips etc) but a whole army of “influencers” and other assorted dipshits who would try to monetize and amplify every aspect of such an event. In other words, an event of this magnitude occurring today might end up being even more influential and “big” than 9/11. And it does not have to be a terrorist attack. Even a somewhat unexpected natural disaster could have the same or larger impact.

Consider, for example, something like a large and especially damaging earthquake on west coast of USA. While most of you might immediately think of the predicted “big one” in California, geological records show that the coasts of Washington and Oregon can suffer even more stronger (but much less frequent) earthquakes. A magnitude 8 earthquake in and around Seattle would cause an absolutely astronomical amount of damage and loss of life- and its social media footprint and impact on public discourse would dwarf 9/11. Similarly something equally spectacular such as, one or more US aircraft carriers being sunk by some other nation (Iran, China) or non-state group (Houthis, Hezbollah) would have a disproportionately large impact on the political discourse in this country. We have already seen something similar with amplification of the “threat” of COVID-19 along with systematic suppression of any viewpoint that contradicted the “official” lies. I can, of course, think of other scenarios such a wider war in the Middle-East or aftermath of now inevitable capitulation of Ukraine.

What do you think? Comments?