The era of social media is making the “where were you when…” question obsolete and is now challenging it in a way members of older generations would not begin to fathom. While the query that will help shape the future of news dissemination could be considered an addendum to the “where were you when…” proposition, we the people of the social media generation are interested in “okay… but how exactly did you find out?”

Social media has evolved from a platform of expressing your likes and dislikes to become a major hub from which we share stories, compare thoughts, and create dialogues with the members of global community and the evening of Sunday, May 1st, 2011 was no different.

I’ve always been intrigued by the way that social media seems to take a news story, regardless of accuracy, and give it enough force to help blast a rocket to the moon. That being the case, I’m always particularly skeptical when it comes to breaking news on the social mediasphere, so as I laid in bed Sunday night blasting off my final musings of the day, I was caught off guard when I started to see the people I follow announce bin Laden’s death.

Therein lies the question: who out of those you follow do you consider to be a reliable enough source that you take their social channel posts as the be all that end all? In this instance, I had to weed through celebrilosophers, comedians and moms, to sources like @WhiteHouse, @TIME, @AndersonCooper, and @nytjim to verify the story.

Despite the skepticism involved in some of the breaking news on social media, I knew that I would find dependable sources to verify, or at least give more insight, on the matter all before having to flip to my favorite news channel or news site. Thus beginning the cycle of news breaking to news confirmation all on the social mediasphere.

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