Students use their cell phones to contact friends and loved ones during the chaos of the afternoon.
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When people were trying to figure out what was happening today on Virginia Tech’s campus, they didn’t immediately turn to their phones. Instead, they looked to social media.
“I used Facebook and Twitter. Facebook chat was great,” said SGA president J Corbin DiMeglio.
DiMeglio used the online feature to coordinate with his friends and family.
“I’ve told my family that if an emergency ever happens to me, to check my Twitter feed first,” DiMeglio said. “So my dad was following Twitter the whole time, even though he doesn’t have an account.”
DiMeglio acknowledged that some students had trouble using their cell phones to send and receive calls and text messages.
“Verizon wasn’t working, and AT&T was barely working,” he
said.
Chris Luceri, a finance major, said he and his roommates remained locked in their house all day.
“I couldn’t send texts or calls,” Luceri said. “We had Tech’s Twitter feed up all day.”
Kevin Ryland, a freshman electrical engineering major, stayed with his friends in Lee Hall.
“I was able to send a few texts,” Ryland said. “But everyone in my hall gathered into one room with the news on and an online police scanner running.
“One of the guys who lives on the seventh floor, his room overlooks the McComas area. He said he had like 30 people going in and out of his room trying to see what was going on.”
Ryland said having so many people gathered in one room helped them share information. He said the group was following the Collegiate Times’ Twitter feed, @CollegiateTimes, all day.
Ryland was also unable to use his cell phone.
“I got texts, but calls wouldn’t go through. There were people I hadn’t talked to in years going, ‘Oh my god, are you OK?’”
Derek Thackston, a senior biology major, also said phone services offered limited communication.
“We all used Facebook,” he said. “As long as the Internet held out we were good.”
A version of this article appeared in the Dec 9 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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“Verizon wasn’t working, and AT&T was barely working,” he
said.
So ATTs service was actually improved during this event?
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This is why the networks ended up bringing in mobile towers after the 2007 event. CT, maybe time for some better servers.
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CT should be very careful what it says about social media after their own actions on twitter yesterday.Their @collegiatetimes twitter was very misleading and irresponsibly tweeted false reports about shots fired by Torg, an arrest made by the Arts building on College Ave., and a "pressing" situation developing by Squires. You are a newspaper and you can't forget that when reporting on Twitter. Your job is to get the story right--not post unconfirmed reports. National media outlets were re-tweeting your false information, which led to more confusion and worries for me and many others I'm sure.
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Good thing you weren't listening to the police scanner. You would have been overwhelmed with worries I'm sure.
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I agree with the above statement. Understandably, in a situation like this, rumors can spread rapidly. It's up to your news team to investigate all leads.
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