We never forget. And we hold onto the hope that we, and the generations that follow us, should never have to experience a day like September 11, 2001 again.

We never forget. And in this era of digital media and technology, we shouldn’t worry that we will.

Thanks to the abundance of ways, means, and mediums in which we communicate with one another today, no one will ever lose sight of the impact that 09/11/01 made in our lives; the challenges we continue to face because of that day; and of course, those still profoundly vivid memories of where we were, who we were with, and what we did on that Tuesday morning.

At the time, I was four months into my first real gig as a sports producer at WJZ-TV in Baltimore, still living in my college apartment at the University of Maryland where I continued to take journalism classes. Of course, I’ll always remember waking up, walking into the living room and seeing my roommate Dave sitting on the edge of the couch, just a few minutes after the first plane hit. As he gazed at the television in shock, fear, or whatever it was he was feeling, I made a comment about a baseball game. He turned to me and said, “Do you have any idea what’s happening in the world?”

Later that day after I got into work, I was pulled out of sports and told I was going to drive a keg of gasoline to our reporters at the Pentagon. Just me, an early ‘90s Ford Explorer, and a red keg of gasoline.  That was comfortable. Incredibly, the security guards allowed me in with just my CBS identification card. I forget that before that day eight years ago, times were a lot simpler and we weren’t ready to be so untrusting of our neighbors yet. Today I’d be in a holding cell for sure.

For me, the most interesting part of that story, when I think back, is Dave’s comment. Did I have any idea what’s happening in the world?

No. I didn’t.  And not because I’d just woken up. But because those ways, means, and mediums were still pretty basic.

If you think about it, 2001, digitally, seems infantile to where we are today.

Don’t get me wrong, September 2001 was certainly no ice age for technology and digital media. We had mp3 players and text messages and tiny cell phones that played music or had built-in cameras. We had webcams and instant messages and DSL Internet. We had the World Wide Web and search engines and Matt Drudge. We had HDTV and digital cable and DVD players.

Yet, in September 2001, communicating lacked that charge of instant oomph. We had no iPhones and SmartPhones and GoPhones. The BlackBerry and the iPod barely existed. WiFi was a luxury. Wireless Internet on our phones may as well have been manned by turtles. Internet connections were slow and unreliable. Computers had less memory, less speed, less functionality.

Dare I say it: we had no Facebook. Twitter was mere onomatopoeia.

Digital media was in its awkward tween stage.

No, I didn’t know what was going on in the world –  not right then and there. Not like I would these days. That instant gratification I thrive on with my media outlets today, that need for speed, I didn’t have it. The need for speed back then came in a Starbucks cup.

I certainly hope we never have another 9/11. And perhaps one of the things preventing such an event is that very ability we have to communicate globally in a matter of seconds. To tweet, to update our Facebook statuses, to hold endless text conversations, to snap a photograph with our phones and send it out instantly, and to let each other know right then and there – whether we’re at home, work, or vacationing in Fiji – that we are doing something; we are watching each other; and we are paying attention and ready to let mom, dad, and Uncle Claude in the Netherlands know it.

No matter what the situation, good, bad, or catastrophic, we are a generation lucky to be able to have digital media to communicate with one another about it right away.

Today marks the eighth anniversary of a terrible day in our lives and our country’s history that we won’t ever forget. And in case you don’t believe me, open up your laptop, check your phone, sign onto Facebook, and update your TweetDeck. Someone out there will make sure of it.