I was talking to someone today about crisis management since my senior research has taken over my life, and also mentioned I had a paper to write about social media. The conversation quickly turned to the use of social media in recovery of disaster efforts. Social media has been an outlet for trying to respond quickly to a crisis. I was told when the earthquake in Haiti caused a major disaster, Facebook allowed users to be able to donate money to the relief. If people were not comfortable with sending their money, Facebook also had instructions on where you could go to donate money or clothes and canned food. This allowed people all over the world to come together to give aid to a country that had been devastated during a time of crisis. This particular person I was talking with told me he was able to get multiple school organizations to participate in donations, and that he only knew of the possibility of donating through Facebook.
Personally, I cant believe how the world has advanced. If we look back to the 1700's when communication and transportation was virtually nonexistent, it was hard for people to communicate between states. Now we are able to connect with people all over the world with one click of our mouse, or one enter key. We are now able to talk to troops over seas via skype, and send boxes of canned goods to disaster victims in Haiti. Facebook and the rest of social media has brought people closer together, almost making the distance between locations nonexistent.
No comments:
Post a Comment