Where were you when…

… Australia got its first female Prime Minister? I was walking along a suburban Perth street on the way to the bus stop to go to work. It was freezing, it got down to 2.4 degrees this morning and it wouldn’t have been much warmer than that when I left the house. I was trying to keep my eyes on the Twitter stream, while making sure I wasn’t going to walk into anything, and Tracy Chapman’s All That You Have is Your Soul was playing on my iPod. I was wearing my orange scarf that was a gift from M. (I like the idea that we now have a woman Prime Minister. I do wonder if she will have a second, full term as PM, though. And can someone tell me where the word ranga comes from? What an odd word!)

… when America got its first black President? I was in Auckland, New Zealand, attending the annual LIANZA conference. I was sitting in Auckland Public Library where people were watching President Obama deliver his victory speech. Some had tears rolling down their faces. I can’t remember what I did to stay connected and learn about what was happening, maybe a combination of Twitter, the media, and talking to people? The Melbourne Cup was also happening at this time, and I remember feeling very glad to be away from the sudden onset of obsession with horses and hats that many Australians seem to get every year in early November 😉

 …when the London underground was bombed? I don’t remember much about what I was doing but I remember the fear and anxiety I felt when the news broke. I knew it was rush hour in London, and I knew that my sister, who was living in London at the time, took public transport to work into the city. I was so relieved when I finally managed to get her on the phone, and she was fine. No Twitter then. I remember looking at the news sites and watching Wikipedia, because the encyclopedia entry about the event was being updated very quickly and regularly.

… when the planes flew into the World Trade Center? I had just arrived home from work (doing late reference shift, back then). The phone rang and my brother-in-law said, “Switch on the telly!” He hung up quickly because he wanted to get back to it. We did as he suggested, and were then transfixed, for some hours watching in disbelief. I remember thinking that it must be some sort of sick joke or stunt. That it couldn’t be real. Then as more information came to hand, wishing I knew what on earth was going on, why this had happened, and who was responsible. The next day at work I remember the shock on colleagues’ faces and their disbelief, uncertainty and worry. Nobody really knew what was going on. We mostly relied on the media, as far as I recall, and got some news from online sources… I remember the news sites being overwhelmed by the demand from people wanting more information.

Does it really matter if we don’t have information about something that’s happening, right as it’s happening? I seem to feel a compulsion to find out now whenever something is apparently going on. Who’s died. What’s crashed. Where was the explosion. It’s like, if I don’t know right as it occurs, I’m somehow deprived or something. And yet just a few years ago I would have been quite content to wait until the morning to listen to the news reports or look at the headlines. Now I have to be plugged in and a part of the mass discussions online. What’s feeding this sense of missing out and not wanting to miss out, I wonder?