We'd be lying if we said we weren't overwhelmed with the response to Monday's event. We're overwhelmed with the work it's generated for our newsroom, but mostly we're overwhelmed by the community's response.
On Monday, UF student Andrew Meyer was Tasered at Sen. John Kerry's town-hall forum after refusing to leave the auditorium quietly.
On Tuesday, students staged protests and sit-ins. Rumors about riots swirled about the city.
National news networks covered the event. Letters poured into our inboxes. Administrators issued statements left and right, trying to cover their asses.
And to think, none of this would have been possible without YouTube and Facebook.
Thanks to several videos of the incident posted online, ranging from television-clarity to cell-phone-fuzziness, millions of people have seen what happened.
Technology's a bitch, man.
Without Facebook, we can't imagine students would have organized themselves quickly enough to hold a protest one short day after the now-infamous event happened.
We're not saying Tasering a student wasn't bad enough. Much of the world would have been outraged without video and photographs.
But technology adds a new element to the equation. Instead of relying on news reports, which often sensationalize or omit some things, raw video footage brings the event away from the subjective and into the objective.
One online video is a small step for man, and technology is one giant leap for mankind.
