Maybe it should not surprise us.
Maybe, considering the most powerful person in the free world uses it as his media sword, this has been coming for a while.
Maybe, just maybe, this is simply the launching point for our conversations and connections to be much broader.
But amid the hand-wringing that consumed one of the nation's largest college football fan bases, Twitter was the clear winner last weekend.
Yes, Twitter - the social media platform that found its footing with 140 characters. On Sunday, Twitter may have doubled down on its power.
Jay GreesonBy now, everyone across the South knows that University of Tennessee athletic director John Currie had every intention of hiring Greg Schiano to replace Butch Jones as the Vols head football coach.
Debate Schiano's merits as a head coach all you want. Speculate all day about whether he knew about the horrors Jerry Sandusky committed at Penn State while Schiano was on staff there. Bemoan that Schiano's biggest fault was that he was not Jon Gruden or whether Gruden was ever a dream for every Johnny Vols fan from Maryville to Memphis.
On Sunday, Schiano's short-lived shot at becoming the highest-paid state employee unraveled because the fan base became unglued.
Plain and simple.
Twitter exploded. Folks were resending original messages of outrage. By 8 p.m., the signed agreement of understanding between Currie and Schiano became arguably the most controversial UT document since former AD Dave Hart signed the paper to try to end the Lady Vols brand.
It took about eight hours from when the rumors first leaked. And within 45 minutes of that magical hour, four of the top 10 trending topics on the international platform that is Twitter were Tennessee (171K Tweets), Vol Twitter (69.2K Tweets), John Currie (95.8K Tweets) and Schiano (187K Tweets). That's four words that created more than 500,000 social media references.
And the quantity was not lost on several state big-timers. Multiple state legislators, candidates for high-profile offices in and around the state, and local politicians all weighed in.
It became a pack with a purpose, a mob with mentions on its mind. And more than that, more than all the heat from the national media the Tennessee fan base is getting, the most important takeaway here is it worked.
It derailed a high-profile decision that affects millions before it ever became truly official. It was the ultimate moment of "the customer is always right," even if they may not be.
And it assuredly will not be the last time this happens.
Social media has been a lot of things to a lot of people.
Now, the power of the people - remember, Tennessee football fans are at their core the customer base of the program - was channeled toward direct change.
And Twitter was their vehicle.
So, as Tennessee fans are wondering what's next for a coaching search that ranks somewhere between the S.S. Minnow and the Titanic on the mis-navigated scale, it's fair for the rest of the world to wonder what's next.
Before Sunday, no one would have guessed that a group of folks who don't know each other but share a passion for UT football could have stopped an eight-figure deal by the millionaire leader of a nine-figure annual athletic department.
Now it's fair to wonder if the leadership at UT was actually leading or following by listening to the backlash. (And it's also fair to wonder how much harder it will make finding the next actual coach since, well, it appears the AD is the mouthpiece for the boosters and the puppet of the people. What would Currie say, for instance, if the next coach asks, "Well, will you have my back when the fans on social media are wanting me fired?" Exactly.)
So the Tennessee fan base may have won the battle of Schiano but where that leads is anyone's guess.
What is undeniable though, is they showed the collective power of today's social media sword. They made a voice of resistance heard, and that resistance was voiced 140 characters at a time.
Now with that instant reaction comes the possibility of misdirected reaction of the masses, when the knee-jerk centers more on the latter than the former. Huh? What is "former" and what is "latter" you are referring to?
You know what they say, with great power comes great responsibility, but Twitter's great power comes with virtually no responsibility.
So who knows who or what is the next Twitter target, but here's betting that Sunday was just the start.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.