The Boston Marathon, like many events, established its own hashtag long before the race was actually run. For the most part, #bostonmarathon was used by race organizers and participants to talk about race plans and, on the day of the race, to share checkins and congratulations. But at about 2:51 pm EST, Will Ritter, press secretary for Republican senate candidate Gabriel Gomez, used the hashtag for a very different purpose: just 30 seconds after the explosions near the marathon finish line, Mr. Ritter used the hashtag to let the world know something had gone terribly wrong.
This tweet appeared at 2:51 pm EST and was retweeted over 200 times in the minutes and hours that followed. In addition to marking a horrific moment, this tweet marks an interesting moment for social media, a moment when the purpose of #bostonmarathon morphs from its initial, official affiliation with the race to a digital marker for national fear and disbelief. Within 2 hours, well over 20,000 tweets using the #bostonmarathon, as well as half a dozen other hashtags including #prayforboston and #helpboston, consumed Twitter.
These tweets serve now as collective monument to our national disbelief, anger, sorrow, and fear. In Electronic Monuments, Gregory Ulmer argues that "commemoration is a fundamental experience joining individual and collective identity" and that the internet opens new venues for our collective mourning (xxi). Twitter certainly seems to have served such a purpose on April 15th.
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