If 9/11 Happened Today

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It's hard to believe it was eight years ago today. For the 3000 families that lost loved ones that day, I am sure every day has felt like another bitter anniversary since their world was ripped apart and turned upside down. For the rest of us, we save up those feelings and air them once a year now - today.

I was thinking about how much personal technology has changed since 2001 (which for me, seems like not so long ago). With the advent of smartphones and social networking, I wonder how 9/11 may have played out differently if it happened today, rather than back then.

- I wonder if people in the Towers twittering their every move and observation would have saved lives. Maybe the firefighters would have pulled back sooner and we wouldn't have lost 300 of those brave men and women that day. Maybe we would have lost more knowing that they would have refused to give up especially when they knew exactly where those in peril were stranded.

- I wonder if the hijackings would have been revealed sooner to the FAA preventing the Towers from getting hit at all.

- I have no doubt there would have been more last messages of "I love you" and "take care of our kids" going out to family and spouses. I can imagine all 140 characters that SMS technology offers being used up for one last connection.

- I wonder if the hijackers would have used texting and Twitter to better coordinate themselves and somehow given their plot away to authorities before being able to carry it out.

- I can only imagine the chilling last minute photos and videos that would have been uploaded to YouTube, Facebook and FlickR.

I'm not the person to judge what the government has done to be more nimble and prepared for another attack should it come. But, I know we are more ready, in ways we probably don't even think about - except on days like today.

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio