Best comparison would be a flatbed trolley carrying two car engines being pushed across the corridor. The vibration from the steel bearings as the wheels roll over the uneven floor could be felt in our workspace. Only that, it wasn't a flatbed trolley rumbling. In a matter of seconds, the entire building began swaying. As our heads become woozy and our vexed eyes lock at the door, we know what was happening.
The ground was shaking.
Conventional wisdom tells us that we should put our hands over our heads and seek cover under the table. But realizing the urgency to share a reaction, to find relief knowing that a collective alarm howls over the Internet, I left a log on Twitter to convey my deepest fear.
Humans are highly sociable creatures capable of doing everything to express their deepest thoughts. I was in state of panic, scared that the temblor might get violent as seconds pass and the shaking never ceases. Instead of letting my self-preserving instincts take over, processing went to letting my fingers tap the keyboard - all - caps, just to tell what was happening at that moment.
When the tremor was over and saw how the timeline on Twitter was suddenly got flooded with Tweets about the earthquake, I realized how technology changed the way we react. Gone are the days when we would scream on top of our lungs to show our distress, or mum about something than let things go overboard. We now tend to speak more with our mind, rather than convey our thoughts with our mouth. The state of alarm I channeled online was more evident than what my agents felt. When two of them asked to have a break, I was already calm and composed to allow them to go.
While this blog entry talks about my musings after the earthquake and how our frantic nature increasingly manifest themselves in social media in the face of such events, I'll end this with some funny scenarios where the urge to broadcast oneself overrules what instincts and sensibilities have taught us.
Humans are highly sociable creatures capable of doing everything to express their deepest thoughts. I was in state of panic, scared that the temblor might get violent as seconds pass and the shaking never ceases. Instead of letting my self-preserving instincts take over, processing went to letting my fingers tap the keyboard - all - caps, just to tell what was happening at that moment.
When the tremor was over and saw how the timeline on Twitter was suddenly got flooded with Tweets about the earthquake, I realized how technology changed the way we react. Gone are the days when we would scream on top of our lungs to show our distress, or mum about something than let things go overboard. We now tend to speak more with our mind, rather than convey our thoughts with our mouth. The state of alarm I channeled online was more evident than what my agents felt. When two of them asked to have a break, I was already calm and composed to allow them to go.
While this blog entry talks about my musings after the earthquake and how our frantic nature increasingly manifest themselves in social media in the face of such events, I'll end this with some funny scenarios where the urge to broadcast oneself overrules what instincts and sensibilities have taught us.
