With countless news reports, exhibitions, TV documentaries and online discussions popping up about the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic , it apparently is coming as a revelation to some people that one of the most tragic disasters in modern history was something other than a movie. The media blogger Jim Romanesko on Tuesday posted a number of Twitter comments from people who had just become aware that the Titanic disaster actually occurred -- and were surprised by their Discovery. "I never knew titanic actually happened" it did???" tweeted one person. "F***ing hell i've just realised titanic was a real event!!" said another. The Romanesko post quickly went viral, leading some of the posters to defend their ignorance. "At the age of 16 it's not essential to know history like that," commented one person. Tweeted another "Im glad im not the only who was shocked about the Titanic being real. Articles getting written and everything. omg." Their defense made matters only worse as newspaper columnists and bloggers posted their own comments about the tweets. Film critic Will Pfeifer, who writes a blog for the Rockford Register Star , remarked, "There are a few naughty words in the posts (it is Twitter, after all), but the real obscenity here is the jaw-dropping idiocy of people who (a) never noticed that Titanic was real and (b) felt the need to broadcast their dimwittedness to the whole world." But one person commented on Romanesko's blog, "They didn't know the Titanic was a real event? So what?"

18/04/2012