Sensible Netnonsense
Where Pinoy pop culture and the digital domain collide
by Ignatius Javellana, Philippines
Subscribe to this blog
Technoterrorism: The speed at which we feel fear
Oct 21, 2007 14:33Last Friday, a little after 1pm, Metro Manila was in turmoil as news of the Glorietta 2 bombing rocked the media in no less than a few minutes. Right after the explosion tore up the groundfloor of the main atrium of Glorietta 2 and burst the surrounding areas into rubble, news wires and radio stations were immediately on the scene, and within seconds the first few feeds were online.
Then, within a span of about 30 minutes, the first images and video began appearing on television and the Internet. In fact, the most played-out footage (on TV Patrol over at ABS CBN and ANC) of the aftermath of the explosion—-where you could still see the dust in the air, people running and screaming away from the debris—-was an amateur video taken with a cell phone camera, from a man who was only meters away from the actual blast.
It's this type of speed and efficiency that frightens me. For one thing, back in the days when events such as these would occur, it would take a while for actual coverage of the event to even reach those who would probably be only a few blocks away. Take the first EDSA Revolution back in 1986. I was still a kid then but it took hours for people to mobilize and for the news to reach us. But when it happened again in 2001, within minutes, I received an SMS and Inquirer.net (then Inq7.net) already had it on its headlines.
Because technology affords us this speed and efficiency-—wireless connectivity, portable digital cameras, 3G cell phones and more—-any newsworthy event can be broadcast in seconds. And because of the growing popularity of blogging among Filipinos, news of this latest terrible event spread like wildfire. Already within an hour there were hundreds of blogs writing about the explosion, all with their own speculations and theories as to what happened. Hundreds of photos of the carnage were being sent over email and posted on photo blogs. And even better, actual first-hand accounts of the incident began to spring up-—from people who were right there when it happened, to people who knew other people who were there, to even people at the emergency room of the Makati Medical Center where most of the victims of the explosion were brought.
And to think this happened during the afternoon, at a time when loads of people were still online, getting updates from friends' and friends of friends' blogs.
My friend Azrael was one such person. Within an hour of the explosion, he was watching the news and already posting images he'd taken from ANC on his blog. An hour after that, another guy on Multiply started talking about his first-hand experience of the explosion, even posting images he'd taken himself while he was there.
The stories may have varied, the footage and images from different perspectives. But the end result was the same-—the more people spoke up, recounted and speculated about these terrible events, the more frightened the rest of the audience became. The entire mall was shut down within minutes, and with good reason, while the rest of Makati broke down within hours, sending terrified employees home, causing massive traffic in certain areas in and around Makati.
The final death toll? Not as tragic as you would think, given the level of destruction seen on these images: Only less than 10 people (as of this time) deceased, and less than a hundred injured.
But the effectivity of the attack, if one would be so inclined to call it an attack... 100 percent over 100 percent.
Malls and other public places have heightened security, people I know would rather stay indoors, heck, we had a semi celebration planned for last night that was canceled the moment we heard of the explosion.
In the end, we are all victims. Victims of our own need to stay connected and be abreast of what's happening, reliant on technology and the Internet. But would you really fault all of those people who started talking in the first place, including me? Would you rather not know?
- Talkback
-
About Ignatius Javellana
Iggy Javellana, who is now the Head of Advergaming for Level Up! Games Inc., is what you would call a "wired" individual: Online practically 24/7. He's an avid gamer, satiric blogger, budding musician and independent film enthusiast, and still hopes to one day become a rock star.
Recent Comments
Most Discussed
January
