Thursday, April 28, 2011

No Twitter During The Royal Wedding?

Posted by Amanda Walsh

As most of us know, the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton will take place tomorrow afternoon in London. Many of us can’t escape the media frenzy and seemingly 24-hour coverage of the anticipated event.

One report came out stating that wedding guests will not be able to send tweets from inside Westminster Abbey. According to a Yahoo! News article, “guests won’t be able to access Twitter because wedding planners arranged for signal-blocking technology to be installed in Westminster Abbey. Royal family members suggested the privacy enforcement, which was approved by police and security personnel.”  Upon further investigation, this report seems to be false, perhaps to discourage any cell phone use during the ceremony. CBS News is reporting that “Metropolitan Police spokesman Eddie Townsend said, ‘The story is not true, rubbish.’”

What is notable about this story is the amount of thought that goes into a ceremony of this size and scale. In today’s highly-connected world, social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have helped historical events gain worldwide attention and should to be consistently monitored. For example, recent reports indicate that a British guard was removed from duty for posting negative comments on Facebook about the bride-to-be. Even if this cell phone technology report is false, it makes me wonder what could happen to a guest if their cell phone buzzes or beeps during the ceremony!

We will all see what happens tomorrow when those of us in America will be up at the crack of dawn, with tissues in hand, to witness an historical milestone between a young couple beginning their life together. Maybe they will send out a tweet when the ceremony is over.

1 comment:

prasad said...

Now the day has come only few hours there for royal wedding so people around the world will watch the wedding T.V. media will also awaiting to live royal wedding all over the world so all wish them to live lifelong together with one or two children.