Well actually it was an Instagram of a Foursquare check-in, posted to Twitter …
So I actually haven’t been following news at all today, and when I say news I mean actual news, not tech news which I keep up with like an addiction. And I so had no idea that a bill to legalize gay marriage was passing through the New York State Senate at the very moment I was writing this post about the Quora redesign.
I was actually pretty surprised when TechCrunch Managing Editor Erick Schonfeld Skyped me with “Look at your Twitter feed.” In a quick game of Internet catch up, I scrolled through my feed.
Yes, my Twitter feed confirmed that New York, as soon as Governor Andrew Cuomo signs off, will join Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia in permitting same sex marriage.
So what heralded the news that the bill had passed 33-29? Well actually the above check-in to something called the Marriage Equalitocalypse.
While a lot of my stream is still filled with the noise of people making the requisite clever quips (see below), there are other, more poignant digital artifacts of the historic moment: the hashtag #equalityforall is trending, this pic of a rainbow colored Empire State Building has gone viral and (perhaps the best part) NYC Mayor Bloomberg also checked into the Marriage Equalitocalyspe, the very same Foursquare check-in that was my gateway to the milestone.
The Wikipedia entry for “Same Sex Marriage” was updated seemingly in a matter of minutes, of course.
And so I’ll say it again, simply: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Foursquare and [insert social media platform of choice] are amazing.
There was something so isolating as a kid when my family turned on the TV to absorb world news on a Friday night, and the only reactions I could see to current events would be that of the people in the room, and those of the people on the screen.
I feel exactly the opposite of isolated when I’m sitting in the office finishing up work for the weekend, and one quick glance at Twitter allows me a glimpse into the opinions of my co-workers across town, or how people are celebrating the approval at the Stonewall Inn in NYC. I can even tap into the sentiment of strangers half way across the world if I so please.
The future, to borrow an apropos phrase, it got better.
http://twitter.com/#!/MikeBloomberg/status/84458150689898498
http://twitter.com/#!/alexblagg/status/84459494876254208
http://twitter.com/#!/mat/status/84458427711102976
http://twitter.com/#!/Megan/status/84458915345084417
http://twitter.com/#!/jasonkincaid/status/84465987704987648
http://twitter.com/#!/Mike_FTW/status/84452907017183232
http://twitter.com/#!/AntDeRosa/status/84445991205470208
http://twitter.com/#!/techsoc/status/84456863273463808
http://twitter.com/#!/naveen/status/84473530800021504
http://twitter.com/#!/rachelsterne/status/84490052658397184
http://twitter.com/#!/jonkauffman/status/84499759733280770
Image: Rachel Sklar