UNTIL recently I have always been lukewarm about the utilitarian value of Twitter . †Although I have close to two hundred followers on one hand, and following about 200 hundred on the other, I couldn’t get myself to understand why millions are going gaga over it. †A good majority of twits I had been getting are spam messages, and just seeing them used to add stress to my already stressful life.
And then Cory died. †Oops, sorry that didn’t sound quite right, did it? †What I meant to say is, because of the events following Cory’s untimely and unfortunate demise I came to see how Twitter can be of real value.
A day before August 5, Cory’s scheduled funeral, my ex-girlfriend and I made plans to join the procession from Manila Cathedral to Manila Memorial Park in Sucat, ParaÒaque. †But we woke up quite late on August 5 and got glued on TV for the long but beautiful requiem mass. †So we amended our plan. †Instead of joining the procession from Manila Cathedral we would just wait for it in SM Bicutan.
I was taking a quick shower just as Cory’s casket was being wheeled out of the Cathedral. †We left for SM Bicutan as Cory’s cortege was entering Anda Circle.
In less than 15 minutes we was in SM Bicutan. †But then we realized we had a problem. †Unless we would take a position along SLEX together with the thousands of people already there we wouldn’t know if and when the procession would already be approaching. †The most logical thing for us to do was to wait in SM Bicutan, in the comfort of one of the restaurants there. †But doing so would make us risk missing the approach of the procession altogether, spoiling our participation on one of the most significant events in the Philippines in the early 21st century.
- Cory’s CortegePhoto Credit: stella-arnaldo.blogspot.com
†And then I remembered that I have Twitter on my iPhone, which until that time I have hardly used. †I also remembered that a few days back I stumbled upon†@GMA7NEWS†and†@INQUIRERDOTNET, the Twitter accounts of GMA 7 News and Inquirer.net, respectively.
And so between 1:15 PM (the time I took a comfortable position at French Baker in SM Bicutan) and 6:15 PM (the time I finally went down on SLEX to await and later join the approaching funerial procession) I was closely monitoring live news feeds in the form of twits from†@GMA7NEWS†and†@INQUIRERDOTNET.
Jessica Soho was inside the Aquino family van, which was directly behind the truck carrying Cory’s casket. †Jessica would twit every few minutes, revealing where the cortege already was and giving a glimpse of the situation and general mood of the Aquinos inside the van.
Another GMA-7 reporter was twitting from a Media truck which seemed to be ahead of the casket-carrying truck.
Meanwhile, other GMA-7 reporters were awaiting the cortege at the Manila Memorial Park, giving snippets of the situation there, through Twitter of course.
I got very similar updates from twits coming from†@INQUIRERDOTNET, which worked well for me because I had a means of validating sometimes sketchy or even dubious information from other Twitterers.
And so for five long hours we patiently waited for Cory’s cortege without the anxiety of having to guess about the current whereabouts of the cortege and the situations in various areas along the route. †At about 6:30 PM, Cory’s cortege finally arrived in Bicutan, and my ex-girlfriend and I joined the procession all the way to Manila Memorial Park in Sucat.
-o0o-
A week after Cory’s funeral I have already fully embraced Twitter. †I have since started following other information sources on Twitter such as†@ANCALERTS,†@ABOUTPH,†@CNN, and a few others.
I still do get spams and other non-sensical twits from the hundreds of other Twitterers that I am following but that’s okay. †I have learned to see through the garbage for those few nuggets of wisdom and information. †After all I am just starting to discover the many potentials of Twitter. †Who knows what else I’ll discover soon.
