Twitter is My Breaking News Source

Once again, Twitter has proven to be a source of breaking news for me. On May 12, the campus of Missouri S&T was on lockdown because a gunman was spotted in one of the campus buildings at around 8:45 a.m. And I learned this from none other than the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Weatherbird himself, who tweeted:

 “The Rolla gunman who closed the @MissouriSandT campus and was involved in a shootout with police on I-44 is in custody. Details coming.”

Luckily, the gunman who fired shots near campus was taken into custody at around 1 p.m. later that same day, and no one was reported injured. You can read the full news release from Missouri S&T here.

I discovered the news on my lunch break, and when I got back to my office on the campus of St. Charles Community College, I announced the news to the surprise of my co-workers, who had not yet heard the breaking news.

I don’t know how many times I have found out about breaking news on Twitter. Balloon Boy, Michael Jackson’s death and Matt Holliday being signed by the Cardinals are just a few events that stick out in my head that I heard first on Twitter. 

In fact, being a huge Cardinals fan, I frequently find myself going to Twitter first, even over Google, when it comes to finding out quick stats from the game or even historical statistics about older players (which becomes particularly in handy when I’m in an argument with a friend).

Twitter is a huge resource of information, and although you often have to sort through the clutter to find the useful stuff, I’d highly recommend checking it out (if you haven’t already) based on that alone.

If you’re not on Twitter, you might experience the same thing on Facebook. I always know when there’s a Cardinals game on because when I log on to Facebook my newsfeed is dominated by status updates about the game. And typically, there will be more posts if the game isn’t going so well.

I mean honestly, what else is Facebook but a place to vent your rants and thoughts in an open forum for all your friends to see? Plus you have to admit it can be fun to stir the pot and see your friends’ responses to said updates.

How many times have you turned to a social media network, be it Facebook, Twitter or YouTube as a source of information? Think about it. You might do it more than you think.