A Moment of Silence on Twitter – Is it Possible?

An article filtered up on Digg today and left me with this strange uneasy feeling. It was the type of feeling that makes you aware of larger things in life while leaving you with a greater sense of irrelevance. A Palestinian doctor, who was also an Israeli news correspondent, witnessed Israeli forces attacking his house and killing three of his daughters while being broadcast on live TV. The word cruel doesn’t seem to cover what this man must have been going through.

When I went back to blogging and to Twitter I felt cheap. All the updates in my feed spoke of their blogs, their brands, their products, and themselves. It frustrated me to know that I was about to do the same self-promotion while there were seemingly bigger things at stake.

Twitter and its community have mastered the art of reactive coverage of current affairs, like the Hudson River plane crash. But after watching the video I got to thinking, is there something we could do? Is it possible to organize a moment of silence on a medium that thrives on constant communication?