As a fitting tribute for Remembrance Day that still manages to be Urgent Genius, we suggest you check out the @RealTimeWWII Twitter account.
This lengthy project is being headed by 24-year old former Oxford history student Alwyn Collinson and will cover the tumultuous events in real-time over the 6-year period of the war.
Having amassed tens of thousands of followers in a matter of weeks, the project has proved to be a popular success that manages to handle the subject matter with both simplicity and dignity. It features everything from military advancements to the political radio broadcasts at the time.
There is also the occasional photograph to add an authentic aesthetic to the proceedings. However, there is no mention of whether we can expect accounts by Churchill and Hitler to pop up.
This experiment proves that Twitter can be used as an effective educational device and as demonstrated here it can serve a truly informative purpose.
However, let’s not forget what can happen when taste goes out the window such as The Guardians’ gratuitous attempt to cover the events of 9/11 in real-time.
Collinson is committed to showing the human tragedy of the war by mentioning individual unique situations that they experienced. Given the 140-character limit tweets never appear to be forced or dramatized. He says he ‘would like to highlight, as far as possible, the human suffering of the war – the cost to combatants and civilians on all sides.’
