Virginia "Tech"

A few years ago, I was attending a traditional Vietnamese engagement ceremony. It basically involves the would-be groom with several of his male friends making a kind of pilgrimage to the home of the would-be bride (her parents), and typically a father of the would-be groom, who asks permission for his son to marry the daughter of the father of the would-be bride. You know, dad asks permission of other dad. Very traditional.

The Vietnamese share some of their traditional roots with other Asian cultures, where ancestor worship is still common. Even here, there is a bit of the technology of the time. A black-and-white photo of a grand parent, or a great grand-parent, looking approvingly on in the process.

The ensuing tea ceremony felt very traditional too. However, the moment was being preserved for posterity. Digital cameras came out. So did digital camcorders. Traditional events being captured on the latest consumer digital electronics. Bits for posterity.

A bit of modernity also sprouts its head in tragedy, as many people, flying on that fateful day, some six years ago, used cell phone technology and called down to loved ones, scared, fearing the worst, sending their best. Over modern electronics.

Traditionally, we've let our media outlets try to gather information for us, disseminate it via newspapers. The events at Columbine were recent enough that we could have seen some of it on the Web, but the Web was only a few years old then, not nearly as popular as it is now. These days, we can get updates by going to our favorite news website, and get information as it unfolds. Of course, live TV news broadcasts have always done well in such situations, trying to give around-the-clock coverage.

But, there's a new way now. A cell-phone recording of the events was made public mere hours after the incident. Its herky jerky movements of a student running around recording events as it unfolded. Then, students getting on the Facebook pages, their MySpace pages, trying to create their own underground news source. The many students outweighing the few journalists, and even as they lacked some information, such as police reports, they could find out who was in class, who made it, and guess at maybe who didn't.

Even in tragedy, our compulsion is to know, to capture these events, to make sense of it, to disseminate. Now it can be done outside the realm of traditional news media. The facts less certain, but details more abundant. Early warnings. Early information. A passionate curiosity on a college campus using the most modern forms of communication to understand a senseless act.