There are apparently two types of people on Twitter: those who know that the RMS Titanic was a passenger boat that sank on April 15, 1912, and people who thought it was just a movie.
That separation is becoming more obvious as the 100th anniversary of one of the most iconic shipwrecks ever approaches next week. In the last month, mentions of the lost liner have slowly risen, and on Tuesday RMS Titanic, Inc., the only company authorized to recover artifacts from the ship, is hosting a tweetup, where experts will answer people’s questions.
Utilizing the hashtag #titanic100, the company asked for Twitter users to submit questions earlier this week. Some have been as simple as where the name came from, to more complex inquiries, like why was the ship’s main hallway offset?
Meanwhile, @RMS_Titanic_Inc has been using Twitter to get people interested and interacting in the days prior to the tweetup and the anniversary. Every day, the account’s handlers have been noting what events were happening exactly 100 years prior.
“On April 4, 1912 Titanic arrived at Berth 44 in Southampton just after midnight…just 10 days before the disaster,” @RMS_Titanic_Inc wrote.
“On April 8, 1912, all the fresh food that was to be used during Titanic’s voyage was brought onboard,” the account added over the weekend.
In the last month, mentions of the boat have skyrocketed, and that number will only increase as the anniversary draws near. (The boat infamously struck the iceberg late on the night of April 14 and sank in the early morning hours of April 15.) Just a month ago, mentions were starting to rise, with more than 13,000 mentions on March 10, according to Topsy.com. A month later, on April 8, there were more than 164,000 mentions of the ship.
But not every mention is an interesting question or historic fact. Some have taken to Twitter to announce their arrogance of history and how they thought the Titanic was just a movie. Some of the worst were collected by a Tumblr user, and many of the uninformed users were the subject of much criticism on Monday.
“I’m ashamed of today’s youth. First they tweet “Who is Paul McCartney?” now I just saw tweets of people realizing that the Titanic was real,” wrote @Nymo.
“Yes dear, the RMS Titanic was as real as you are dumb,” wrote @SinugbangSugbo.
Hopefully Tuesday’s tweetup can provide some answers to the uninformed.
Photo via RMS Titanic on Facebook