Tuesday, September 11, 2012

9/11 as remembered through Twitter

Posted by Professor Boynton

I summon up remembrance of thing past

Current international affairs are largely a remembrance of things past. Lines on a map of ancient vintage set how we organize life today. Institutions such as the United Nations or the World Trade Organization from the past structure current political and economic activity. And there are more personal remembrances. One of these is 9/11. No further identification is needed. We all know/remember 9/11.

Today is 9/11. The New York City Police Department has been using Twitter to memorialize those of their members who were victims on that day (Fitzpatrick, 9/10/2012).

Police Officer Mark Ellis, TD-4 | End of Tour: 9/11/01 ~ ow.ly/dz2cU #neverforget

And many more for those who died.

But the police are not the only ones using Twitter to express their remembrance of the event. I started counting Twitter messages mentioning 9/11 in 2010. That first year I did not get the ninth, and I only got the second half of 9/10. So the numbers the first year are not as complete as later.

9/9
9/10
9/11
9/12
2010
45,526
201,384
40,276
2011
256,602
294,742
371,714
203,251
2012
85,500
218,174 
                   382,912

In 2011 Twitter was used more than a million times to remember, to never forget, to express continued concern, and lack of understanding of how this could have happened. And Twitter messages are only a small window into our continuing concern.

Our remembrance has become the lynchpin of the war on terror which we have been fighting for a decade. Wars, bombings, large government agencies devoted to stopping terrorism, scanners for surveillance at transportation points like airports, even shoes -- they are all a remembrance of that event propelling us and them to current action.

Of course, there was terrorism before 9/11. The State Department was keeping a record before 2001 so we can have a sense of the prior incidence. These are their numbers from 1982 to 2003.

Total International Terrorist Attacks, 1982-2003
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
2000
01
02
03
487
497
565
635
612
665
605
375
437
565
363
431
322
440
296
304
274
395
426
355
198
190

These are the numbers after a decade. (U.S. Department of State . . ., 7/31/2012)

Attacks Worldwide
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
14,415
11,663
10,968
11,641
10,283

Today we have much more to remember.

References

Fitzpatrick, Alex (9/10/2012) New York Police Use Social Media to Memorialize 9/11 Victims, Mashable.

U. S. Department of State National Counterterrorism Center: Annex of Statistical Information (7/31/2012) Country Reports on Terrorism

United States Department of State (4/2004) Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003, p. 176

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