Getting a lift from the web
Slightly shaky-looking cyclists weaving in and out of the bus lane, besuited and bemused businessmen who don’t know the way to work above ground... Yes, there’s a tube strike on, and you’ll probably have noticed some of these sights throughout the capital on your way to work this morning (if you made it into work, that is).
It’s a little too late to be giving advice now, but anyone who had a bit of a ‘mare this morning might have found solace (or just a lift to the office) in the social networking sphere yesterday. According to the Times this morning ‘websites were awash with offers of goodwill, shared motorbikes and free travel advice as bloggers united to try and beat the Tube strike’. As well as recommending sites such as walkit.com, bloggers, tweeters and the like arranged car shares and cycle groups to tackle the travel chaos.
Our favourite is the motorcyclist who offered lifts to Twitter users on his journey between Croydon and Central London. He was even providing gloves for his passengers.
We read time and time again that social networking will basically be the death of human interaction. According to the future-phobic, sensationalist press we’re all holed up in our bedrooms, only ever seeing our friends on Facebook; we’re twittering every five seconds about how today’s tuna sandwich wasn’t just as nice as yesterday’s cheese and pickle, oblivious to the fact that nobody else cares; we only meet new people via snarky replies to blog posts. The web is a soulless cavern where usually-nice people say horrible things to one another that they wouldn’t dare to say face to face.
OK, people do say some pretty pointless things on Twitter. But when the Tube strike gave us a great opportunity to spread a little happiness, didn’t the digital community seize it with both hands? For Londoners, sites like Twitter proved their worth in one day.
So, we’d like to applaud the digital community for what they did last night. As well as giving some of us a lift to work, you managed to lift our spirits too.