When I watched CBS Sunday Morning today they reminded me that it’s the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, which means it’s also the 20th anniversary of my high school band trip to New York during which I was completely oblivious to the Oklahoma City bombing. At age 14 I wasn’t all that interested in following the news, so when the band went out of town for half a week I was somehow able to avoid reading any papers or seeing any newscasts about the event. I remember overhearing my band director saying something about a bombing to someone else, and there was a snippet of conversation I heard on a radio show on my Walkman when I was scanning through the New York stations, but that was it. I lived in my own little bubble for half a week and came back to town with an “I Love New York” t-shirt, not any appreciation for the national disaster that had just occurred.
When I got back 3-4 days later and saw stories about the bombing on the news, I was like, “Wait, what happened?” But at that point in the story the reporters didn’t bother to explain what had happened 4 days earlier, they just reported on the latest developments. The only way to get news at that time was through the TV, newspaper, or radio, so it was a bit difficult to figure out what was going on. The internet existed back in 1995, but I don’t think any major news organizations had a web presence yet. I didn’t even have my own email address at the time, so the internet was more of a novelty than a useful information source.
As a result, I feel like I missed out on a national moment, as sad as that moment was. Whenever the Oklahoma City bombing comes up in the media I’m reminded that I did not experience that event like the majority of the country experienced that event. Twenty years later, it’s amazing how hard it would be for me to be that oblivious to world events unless I was consciously living off the grid. A tragedy like that would start trending on Twitter immediately, people would share articles in my Facebook feed, and I’d see it mentioned when I visited news sites during the day.
It’s amazing to realize how much more saturated I am in information now than I was in 20 years ago. It’s also amazing that that saturation seems completely normal. When a major news event happens, I expect a bystander to tweet a photo or post a video to YouTube. It’s a bit strange for something major to happen that isn’t recorded. It feels like we’re all having a large, communal experience that we weren’t having decades ago. Everyone is accessing a group of common experiences through videos and camera phones that we couldn’t share before. It’s much harder to know nothing. We all seem to know the same something.
I’m not really sure if this is bad or good. I do like knowing what’s happening in the world. I like being able to Google something and get the information I’m seeking instantly. I like checking Twitter and Facebook, but sometimes they make me feel like I’ve wasted hours not doing anything. It’s impossible to consume everything out there, and I have to wonder if it all seemed more manageable 20 years ago. Or not. There were probably people back then with piles of newspapers in their living room like I have hundreds of links bookmarked in my browser, saying, “I will read this eventually! I promise! I can’t throw it out yet!”
There’s so much media available to consume now that that I feel like I can never keep up. There are dozens of TV shows I’d like to watch that have gotten great reviews, but I don’t think I could watch them all unless I abandoned all my clients and spent all day watching TV instead. And sometimes I’m too tired to focus on something new and would rather turn my brain off and watch some Law and Order reruns instead. *chung chung*
Back in 1995 I would never anticipated any of that. I could just ride along the east coast in a bus full of band geeks without knowing what was going on a few thousand miles away, headphones on, in my own little world. I’m not sure if I miss that or not, but it’s odd to think that it will probably never happen to me again. I’m fairly certain a 14-year-old on a band trip today would hear about a national news event like that while it was happening, not 4 days later. We’re all connected in a much larger community now, and it’s hard for anyone to opt out completely.
Natalie says
April 19, 2015 at 7:43 pmI still don’t really understand twitter. I tried following a couple of celebrities I was vaguely interested in but I found I didn’t really care what they were having for lunch. And a TV show I liked, but that didn’t give me anything I wanted either. You talk about getting news from it? How? Do you follow a news provider like a TV station or newspaper, or is it something else?
NM says
April 19, 2015 at 11:30 pmI was studying abroad in Australia when the Oklahoma bombing occurred. I remember distinctly sitting alone in a common lounge watching the news footage and trying to figure out what had happened. There wasn’t a whole lot of news coverage of the event, and back then, there were maybe like 3 channels. Like you said, it’s strange to think about how easy it is to get information now – it would’ve been a different experience if I could have read and learned about it online.
Vickie says
April 20, 2015 at 6:14 amI get so easily overloaded (by negative) that I really limit my exposure. Now, moderation.
I have been over exposed (on purpose) in the past, an example when I was first home full time with my oldest, I “watched” the gulf wars to the point that I knew the generals by sight (CNN). I had it on if I was awake, and with a baby, I was awake a lot.
I listened to NPR for years. But then the banking stuff really sank me.
I moved to exposure free (At that time), to the point that my husband had to make a point to tell me if something major happened.
Now I watch ABC world news, recorded, fast forwarding if something bothers me and thru all commercials. Actually I do not fast toward, I use the one minute button so I do not see a bit of any commercials. I also watch a local news channel, recorded, skipping weather and sports so it takes about 10-15 minutes. But then I know what is going on locally.
I read a few blogs. Sometimes things are discussed there.
I go to a discussion group on occasion. Wide variety of topics.
I talk to my kids, my husband, a lot, wide variety of topics.
No tweet, no Facebook, nor the like. It is just too easy to lose so much of one’s time, as you said. And it is too easy to get negatively impacted.
JenFul says
April 20, 2015 at 1:10 pm@Natalie – Most news outlets do have a Twitter account you can follow if you want. I tend not to because they’ll post a lot during the day and I don’t care enough about them to read 20 tweets a day. I tend to follow people I know offline, people I know online, some writers, some comedians, several television critics, and some humorous accounts. If an event as big as Oklahoma City were to happen again, I’m sure at least a few of those people would mention it in a tweet, so I’d be tuned in to what was going on. Twitter is actually where I learned Osama Bin Laden had been killed because there was chatter on Twitter about it before it was officially confirmed via other outlets.
Sara says
April 25, 2015 at 2:53 pmi completely missed th Space Shuttle Columbia explosion. It happened less than 2 weeks after my son was born and I was in a complete fog. I heard snippets on the news, but that’s about it. Major news outlets were around on the Internet and I’m slightly ashamed to say I never even bothered to look it up.