A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in a meeting with fellow Cuso volunteers. We were in Ocho Rios and it was a Saturday. I was taking notes on a colleague’s presentation when a fellow volunteer whispered to me: “You might want to check YOU’s Twitter account, I think you’ve been hacked.” I immediately rushed down to the lobby where I was able to get wifi. Sure enough, someone had hacked Youth Opportunities Unlimited’s Twitter account. Not only had they hacked it, but they had sent out dozens of sexually suggestive links to what I presume were porn web sites.

I was deeply upset by this, although we are in good company. But YOU is a charitable NGO that works with at-risk youth. Really? You are going to hack that kind of organization? I know it is nothing personal. In fact, I suspect it was a spambot, ie not a live human being. Nevertheless, it was disturbing. I changed the password, apologized online to YOU’s Twitter followers and responded directly to people who had kindly alerted us to this incident. Everyone was understanding. It seems most people have been hacked in some form or fashion. But it is never a pleasant experience and you always feel slightly violated. This incident has made me wonder whether or not this whole hacking/links to porn actually works. Does it generate revenue for someone somewhere? How could it benefit anyone? I guess I will never know.

On a related note, I recently noticed I have evolved in my social media/technology persona. I have been live-tweeting events for awhile now. Usually when I cover something, I automatically take a ridiculous amount of notes, even if it is not necessary, out of habit. But lately I have started only Tweeting and not taking notes. It feels kind of strange, not to be writing everything down. But at the end of last week’s event, I reviewed my Twitter feed and it was a solid and useful record of the day’s events, especially when paired with everyone else’s Tweets who were at the event. The other nice thing about this is that the whole live-Tweeting thing often sparks conversations, which often leads to people sharing information, asking pertinent questions and generally helping one another out. And afterwards, as I was writing up a report, I realized I had a nice stream of information from my Twitter feed to help me put it together.

In a way, I guess it is not really that different from being a print reporter and taking notes on paper. Everyone’s head is down in both cases, writing or typing away. You then go away and review your notes and assemble a story. A couple of major difference, though. One is the fact that you can both engage in whatever event you are at, as well as hold a parallel conversation about the event on Twitter. I wonder if this is a positive or negative development, as there is usually some snark going on about whatever is happening. The Twitter conversation also means that the event is instantly transmitted live, through the filter of those Tweeting, of course. This is sort of like the press conference broadcast live, but with Twitter you are relying on individuals to deliver the message. This means that your access to content is limited by the capacity of the ability of individual Tweeters to Tweet. So you don’t always get the whole story. (This is comparable to print reporting, i.e. you never get the full story, only the reporter’s version). This is the whole idea behind Storify, a resource for compiling social media from around the internet to tell stories.

Perhaps I am a bit late with all these musings. Actually, I am not, rather I am just fascinated with the organic way in which technology and social media seep into our lives and become second nature. The transition from pen-wielding reporter to lap-top using Tweeter happened to me so gradually and mindlessly until I realized with shock what had happened. It is quite amazing to me sheds some light on how we evolve naturally and with little deliberation.