When telephone landlines and mobile phone connections collapsed with the terrible 8.9 scale earthquake and devastating 33-foot tsunami the social networking sites became the lifeline and only preferred line of communication for people.
At this moment , for many people social networks became the easiest, quickest and reliable way of keeping in touch with their relatives and also in providing necessary emergency information to those in stricken areas. Facebook along with Twitter become very helpful for the rescue operation. These sites become the helping hand that brought the families’ together in the aftermath of the disaster.
Skype and Google became an invaluable resource for those trying to find their missing relatives. Google launched its person finder tool for the Japan earthquake in both English and Japanese. This tool provided two links ,one for people seeking information for their relatives struck in affected areas and the other one for people who wanted to post information about individuals.
Side by side people in Japan were also using these social medium like,Twitter, Mixi and Facebook ,to update news about the whole disaster as in how serious the situation was ,where they were struck and they even uploaded mobile videos which they had recorded .These videos were seen by hundreds thousands of people even before mainstream media rebroadcasted these footages.
Even the Red Cross Organization started to spread the message about their 90999 text message number for Red Cross Relief on Facebook and Twitter. Basically if you message Red Cross on this number you will be automatically donating $10 to Red Cross for relief efforts.
"While there are so many technologies at this time that isolate us from our fellow beings, social networking tools have shown their ability once again to unify us as human beings, and to bring out what is most altruistic and empathetic in our natures,".
I feel , though we keep on complaining about social networks, that they invade our privacy but , we still can not deny the fact that they have proved to be a lifeline for millions and help many saving their lives.
During this horrible disaster, Social networks have brought out best in people they are just did not inform and update about the disaster but also helped people unite and continuously encouraged them to take action and even supported them in bringing the relief to the victims.
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Social networks are certainly one of the most powerful tools nowadays. In crisis cases, such as in Japan, social networks can perform as a "weapon" in order to inform or be informed.It is an extremely quick way to talk to the others and announce news, especially in crises situations.
ReplyDeleteSpecially is extremely tech-savvy countries like Japan, where a vast majority of people have smartphones, social networks work brilliantly in case of any crisis. It is reported that there were around 1200 tweets sent per minute as the earthquake hit Japan and the phone lines went down. The scope of social media is immense and I'm glad that our generation gets to be a part of this social media revolution.
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