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September 11, 2001 media synced in real-time

911realtime.org

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Re: September 11, 2001 media synced in real-time

#22

Post by rebuilder »

sharkweek wrote: post #5

I sometimes forget how surreal that day was. Was in high school at the time and sort of at “that age” where the world was still pretty small and revolved around me. Mom waking me up to say “you need to watch this,” with the TV on and both towers are on fire. The morning variety newscasters breaking their household familiarity speaking in a frightening shock that was so out of character. Still went to school that day…

I’m not sure at all the pandemic is going to be more significant historically. The 9/11 attacks did what Al-Qaeda intended them to - got the USA mired in an expensive, unwinnable war, which ultimately broke the US will to fight and seems to have resulted in a major reconfiguration of US foreign policy.

Re: September 11, 2001 media synced in real-time

#23

Post by dharmab »

phaedrus wrote: post #18

I was in USMC boot camp on 9/11/2001. You don't get much chance to consume media during training, and they put us on lock down and gave us only limited information. We knew kind of serious attack had happened, but not exactly what. By the time I got out of training, the news cycle had moved on so it wasn't until the first anniversary of 9/11 that I saw the news footage of the event for the first time. Coincidentally…

> By the time I got out of training, the news cycle had moved on so it wasn't until the first anniversary of 9/11 that I saw the news footage of the event for the first time.

This might seem strange to some younger readers, but remember in 01-02 internet video (and, indeed, internet faster than dial-up) was not ubiquitous. My family has a VHS tape recording of the news that day because that was how the average person preserved TV broadcasts.

Re: September 11, 2001 media synced in real-time

#27

Post by davidw »

reginold wrote: post #15
davidw wrote: post #12

I'm old enough to have pretty vivid memories of watching a lot of this live. I don't really want to relive it. Keep the memories alive? Certainly. But rewatching? Too much. Also, while we can't change the past, we're facing a massive challenge that is devouring thousands of people on a daily basis; let's commit to doing everything we can to defeat that particular monster. That is something we can all help with, in ou…

Heck yeah! What are you doing to help? I'm pretty exhausted at this point, hard to focus.

Nothing exciting or noteworthy: staying home, avoiding crowds, wearing a mask, have my shots. Trying to be extra kind and friendly with people in places like supermarkets, or teachers. Supporting our school board that takes it seriously and is implementing science-based precautions.

Re: September 11, 2001 media synced in real-time

#28

Post by dragonwriter »

dharmab wrote: post #23
phaedrus wrote: post #18

I was in USMC boot camp on 9/11/2001. You don't get much chance to consume media during training, and they put us on lock down and gave us only limited information. We knew kind of serious attack had happened, but not exactly what. By the time I got out of training, the news cycle had moved on so it wasn't until the first anniversary of 9/11 that I saw the news footage of the event for the first time. Coincidentally…

> By the time I got out of training, the news cycle had moved on so it wasn't until the first anniversary of 9/11 that I saw the news footage of the event for the first time. This might seem strange to some younger readers, but remember in 01-02 internet video (and, indeed, internet faster than dial-up) was not ubiquitous. My family has a VHS tape recording of the news that day because that was how the average person…

> This might seem strange to some younger readers, but remember in 01-02 internet video (and, indeed, internet faster than dial-up) was not ubiquitous.

And even if you used internet video (or, heck, even read news online), none of the sources (origins sites and Google and other portals) had the capacity to deal well with the major surge of associated with a event like 9/11. Everything online was spotty or broken under load. 9/11 broke the internet before “breaking the internet” was a thing, and more literally than almost anything since.

Re: September 11, 2001 media synced in real-time

#29

Post by leesalminen »

9/11 was my birthday, and I was just outside of NYC in school that day.

I was in math class. The phone in the classroom rang and my teacher turned on the radio (1010 WINS) immediately. After hearing what had happened she broke down in tears because her husband worked in WTC. My parents worked in NYC (as did most of my classmates' parents) and was very concerned.

The school district evacuated the elementary schools to the gym at the middle school because our town had a major dam and there were concerns that could be attacked too, which would've flooded the low-lying areas where the elementary schools are. Eventually, school was dismissed and I ended up at my neighbor's house. Her husband was a FDNY Captain.

So many people I know died or were permanently harmed (physically or mentally) that day.

While nearly every second of that day is permanently etched into my brain, there's one day that's even more vivid. My FDNY Captain neighbor took me to ground zero in early November 2001. I'll never, ever forget the smell of burning flesh and the hundreds of firefighters using rakes looking for human remains. He told me to never forget, and I never will.

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