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Life On Line

Yesterday afternoon I was scanning Twitter for possible blog post topics and I saw this:

Shots fired inside Ellicott City Walmart.

There were a handful of tweets from different sources, clustered in a one-hour period. My impression was that this was an ongoing situation. I went to Facebook to see if anyone knew anything.

I posted:

Shots fired in Ellicott City Walmart?

The response was immediate.

Are you there?

I realized my mistake too late. Friends were seeing my post and assuming I was in danger. After a few minutes of trying to explain the situation, I deleted the entire post.

I’ve always thought I was a responsible user of social media but yesterday I was lazy. I didn’t do the additional research that would have shown that the event took place Saturday evening.  And I posted to Facebook in a way that caused friends unnecessary alarm. It was the social media equivalent of shouting “Fire!”  in a crowded theater.

In short, I screwed up.

The combination of ever-increasing incidences of mass shootings, combined with the hair-trigger immediacy of social media, puts us all on edge. And makes it easy to over-react. Jump to conclusions. Flail about in search of answers.

My apologies to anyone I may have frightened yesterday. I vow to do better.

Also, a recent (around 6 am) update on this ongoing story:

 HoCoPD searching for gunman who wounded another shopper at the #EllicottCity #Walmart. Wounded man got his gun & shot at store @cbsbaltimore
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