07 February 2010

All Quiet on the Northwestern Front...


I survived Snowmageddon/Snowpocalypse 2010!! The snow started Friday afternoon and continued steadily through Sunday evening. All in all, we received between 25-30 inches of snow. It's hard to tell! I do know that I have never seen so much snow in my entire life!



Friday night Facebook was abuzz with the word of a citywide snowball fight in Dupont Circle. So, me and the gang braved the snow (which was still coming down) and trekked it to the Metro. We had to walk on the road to get there...and there were people skiing right down Wisconsin Avenue! Alas, we made it there safely. And at 2:00 p.m. EST we joined the Southside in the Dupont Circle snowball fight. There were hundreds of people there! I threw my fair share of snowballs and took a few in the face as well. People were talking like it was war. They were using all the military jargon -- ranks, flanks, charges, fronts, etc.



I found the amount of community that developed to be incredible. People were actually talking to one another on the Metro. Hundreds of people were milling about as close to three feet of snow fell. And what makes it even more interesting is that these people -- this community of snow lovers, if you will -- was brought together via social media. This is a concept we have being debating in my seminar class. Does social media promote or detract from community? I think the Dupont Circle snowball fight is proof that sites like Facebook and Twitter truly can bring people together.



Today, the snow has subsided (for now). All is quiet in Northwest DC, or should I say on the Northwestern Front, as we call it now. No offense Erich Maria Remarque.

4 comments:

  1. I don't get it. I wouldn't consider D.C. to be the North, it's the middle. And it's certainly not the West, unless you mean the Western Hemisphere. And I'm quite certain you're not at Northwestern.

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