Hey everyone, I hope you guys are safe and well. It wasn't bad at all in Cherry Hill, NJ, but I know Manhattan especially was hit hard. Anyway, one thing that really stuck out to me was the impact of social media, especially FaceBook and Twitter. During yesterday's storm, Mayor Bloomberg was alerting everyone and even suggesting that they use the city's facebook group for specific information. I know that Twitter was especially big with people retweeting important information, such as specific buses or trains closing down or opening, and the specific times of when bridges would open.
This post isn't really a "Let's argue and debate about something," but it's more or less about examining how social media has really binded us together.
Kudos to Bloomberg for doing such, and it would only seem natural (to me at least) that everyone would start implementing social media. I believe that programs like Facebook and Twitter will continue to be utilized until something more effective is invented. The chain has been Radio-Television-Internet for the past century or so, all of which have effectively bound us to one another.
ReplyDeleteOne question though, who were the ones that retweeting the important information via Twitter? Companies? Individuals? My lack of technological expertise is showing here, but I know that select boroughs of NYC had their power shut off, so how would they be able to see the notifications? Did phones still retain power?
The companies themselves would tweet out information, such as MTA. Also politians would do so, such as Andrew Cuomo, governor of NY. These would then lead to retweets by celebrities because of the large pool of fans they have. One example I have is of Jenna Fischer (You can scroll down to see her retweets): https://twitter.com/jennafischer
ReplyDeleteVery well done by the authorities. Also never hurts to gain a little positive PR amidst a natural disaster.
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