I can clearly remember reading about the death of Elvis Presley as I walked across Glasgow's Arran Drive, at the foot of Mosspark Avenue.

It was on the front page of the Daily Record, which I had just bought from Mr Carson, the newsagent, for my father, along with his gold packet of 20 Benson and Hedges.

When an airliner crashed into the second tower of the World Trade Center I was in a pub in Mull, where I had gone to ask if they could heat a bottle of milk for my eldest daughter, who was barely two months old.

The staff and several punters were transfixed on a small television set above the bar and there was an eerie, apocalyptic silence in the room that confirmed we were witnessing the beginning of world-altering events.

Read more by Carlos Alba

I mention these two examples because, increasingly, I feel like it’s becoming more difficult to pinpoint where and when I first heard of major things happening. It could be age, but I don’t think it is.

In the past, there was only a handful of ways in which you could learn about things outside of your immediate experience; either from the source of the news (newspapers, television, or radio) or by word of mouth, from another person.

Today, news is all around us; on multiple media channels, on billboards and noticeboards, on ubiquitous TV screens in every public space, on our phones and tablets, the screens we stare at all day, every day for work and leisure, and, of course, through social media.

The more of these platforms we see, the more likely it is we will be exposed to news on a perpetual basis, throughout our waking hours.

An interesting social experiment is to try to tell........

© Herald Scotland