Help find Aubrey Sacco, 23, missing in Nepal

swedishfish — Tue, 11 May 2010 02:28:38 +0000

Aubrey Sacco, Boulderite and Colorado native, missing in Nepal

This afternoon I received a text from my brother: “Can you retweet my last tweet? Morgan Sacco’s sister is missing in Nepal.”

I remembered instantly who Ryan was talking about. I didn’t know her well, but I saw Aubrey on the CU campus probably only a handful of times. Regardless, it scared me right out of my sleepy stupor; she had been traveling in southeast Asia on her own. I checked Ryan’s Twitter account and found a link to the Facebook group, where people have been posting messages of support and the membership has been growing steadily. Aubrey’s cousin Amanda has asked people to spread the word, especially on social media, so we can find people who can help.

Aubrey’s last verified location was at Shyabrubesi on April 20, where she checked in before her trek and after she arrived from a bus trip from Kathmandu. She was trekking the Langtang region and planning on taking a popular route from the Lonely Planet guide. She was supposed to be back by April 30 or May 1, when her parents expected to have heard back from her — but nobody has heard from her.

Aubrey Sacco

Since then, there have been strikes in Nepal — strikes that have shut down shops, transportation, and services all over the country. There’s a strong likelyhood that Aubrey has been unable to contact family because of these strikes, but the Saccos still want to find their daughter is and it’s the community’s duty to help make it happen.

I rang up (okay, direct-messaged) the Elephant Journal with a plea: please help! Knowing that readers of the Elephant Journal not only care about the well-being of a valued member of the spiritual community, but may even know others who can help find Aubrey, I figured it would be one of the best ways to spread the word on social media.

Waylon got back to me in minutes. He said he’d publish something if I could get it to him this afternoon. After getting ahold of Connie, Aubrey’s mother, I had a detailed explanation of the circumstances and a piece to go with. Also, the Daily Camera was looking for information. By evening, the Daily Camera / Colorado Daily, Greeley Tribune, and the Elephant Journal all had information about Aubrey posted on their sites. Faithful Elephant Journal readers are tweeting and re-tweeting about Aubrey.

Today I have seen a huge demonstration of community and I’m hoping that this continues. The Saccos are a good family and they deserve to see their daughter step off the plane on May 15, when she is scheduled to come back home.

Before then — and I mean, right NOW — please spread the word. Pass these links along. Tweet about it. Join the Facebook group. Do whatever you can do get this message around the world and in the hands of people who might be able to help.

UPDATE: The Denver Post is also writing about Aubrey and I’ve included the link below.

UPDATE, pt. 2: The Greeley Tribune has published a piece about Aubrey for the Tuesday edition. Link below.

UPDATE, pt. 3: I’ve added a few more blog posts and television coverage.

Why Twitter tires me out

swedishfish — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:11:31 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now, but it took me a while to get to it, even though many different Twitter-related happenings have occurred that would normally give me a lot of motivation to write a post about it.

You see, Twitter has been getting on my nerves for many months now. I first started getting tired of Twitter when CNN started to pick up on it, asking people to voice their opinions and basing entire shows off of the concept of giving viewers a voice. The problem with that, if you ask me, is that a lot of the hot topics on the news are far more serious than 140 characters, and require much more space, time, and context than a mere tweet. Of course, that’s been a problem in journalism for a while now; 140 characters is extreme when examining the way that half-hour news programs have severely limited the quality of content while becoming a prime source of news for most Americans.

I could go on and on about user-generated content, the importance of editorial discretion, why journalism is dying, etc., and it’s all relevant — but it’s only distantly related to my unhappiness with Twitter.

Twitter is beginning to tire me out because of the way it is being used by a large amount of its user base. When I first joined Twitter, I thought it was a neat concept; I could broadcast something I wanted to say to a lot of people, and they could get it on their phones if they wanted to. I could keep updated on what my friends are doing without having to ask each person separately what their plans are for the weekend or if they felt like seeing a movie. I, like many others, never anticipated Twitter becoming quite as huge as it is now, nor did anyone actually anticipate the rush it has become to gain followers, build a brand, start discussions, etc. In all honesty, I’m quite disappointed that it has become such a big deal.

And don’t even get me started on all the social media guru stuff that goes around. The hundreds of top ten lists that circulate the Internet, written by supposed social media experts? I get so tired of it. But like I said — don’t get me started.

I’ve been involved in a few arguments over Twitter lately with people whom I know personally to some extent. Funny enough, the arguments have been sports-related. Now, I’m pretty into sports; I’m a Cubs fan, I love the mechanics and the rules of football, I play and love watching ice hockey, and I tend to get pretty involved when the World Cup rolls around. But by no means am I a Super Fan (though I’ll always be devoted to the Cubs), and I think I have a hard time understanding such intense fandom when it becomes personal. Regardless of my stance on sports, it was the combination of debate/argument/discussion with the incessant need to pursue the topic over Twitter that really turned me off. I was accused of not wanting to stand up for what I was saying, amongst other things, especially when I wanted to stop the discussion. In fact, it’s the exact opposite — I want to stand up for myself and continue a discussion, but it’s not possible to do so on Twitter. I don’t believe that Twitter is the proper medium for arguments; it is not a glorified chat room, nor does it provide much space for one to properly and thoroughly discuss a topic.

On top of that, what’s the result of trying to halt such an occurrence? Name-calling, unfollowing, blocking, and really just unpleasant behavior. Come on, people. It’s Twitter! It’s not necessarily the right place to start a serious conversation. If I mean to start a serious conversation, I wouldn’t start it on Twitter. Therefore, what I talk about on Twitter is not serious. There’s a reason I don’t delve into most of what I do at work on Twitter. There’s a reason I stopped talking about my love life on Twitter. Those reasons, with different pieces of nuance to each, all come down to the same things. Plain and simple, Twitter is just not the place for a multitude of valuable interactions; it takes away from quality, just as not all news can be summarized in 30-second snippets or within a half hour of a news program. Regardless of the different ways it can provide a great service, it just isn’t the best place for everything — especially long-winded and rather public arguments.

Even though I find it ludicrous to create a policy for something one doesn’t take so seriously in the first place, I think I will have to put some time into writing about the reasons I use Twitter and what I expect (or don’t expect) from others when interacting on Twitter. For instance, I really like Jeremy Tanner’s Twitter policy. Although I think that it’s slightly dated in the sense that following/unfollowing is no longer one of the top issues users have with etiquette and behavior, it’s still a pretty solid start.

In the meantime, I don’t mind hiding out from Twitter for a while. I’ve discovered that the less time I spend on Twitter, the more time I spend reading a good book or two. The less time I spend on Twitter, the more I get done at work. And the less time I spend on Twitter, the less I get pissed off at asinine arguments that are best conducted through other media.

jennifer newell » Twitter

Help find Aubrey Sacco, 23, missing in Nepal

Why Twitter tires me out