Relief of Technology

New technology hits the store shelves daily and the vast online web growing greater in size by the second leads to many interesting advances that are debatable as good or bad. The birth of social networking sites like Myspace, Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia evolving over time with the growth of its members.

Communication between the masses to keep in touch and organize in some cases is what brings the public to these online sites; being able to talk with celebrities, friends from college and of course your grandmother in another state. Besides listening to music and looking at your best friends’ birthday pictures is this technology provide a greater service to society? In a disaster does Twitter or Wikipedia help the general public understand and provide help to the victims?

Twitter launched in 2006, a website that enables users to send and read tweets online. Tweets are text messages that are a max of 140 characters. Four years later a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on January 2010 allowing Twitter a chance to help during a disaster.

Organizations like the American Red Cross used their Twitter pages to send out tweets to the general public asking for donations and ways for people to help. One way was to tell people through Twitter that they can text the word “Haiti” to donate by using their cell phones.

Celebrities used their own personal Twitter pages to encourage people to donate for Haiti. Rapper Wyclef Jean used his account to post news updates and raise funds quickly for Haiti.

Users using Twitter posted from around the globe about Haiti, even victims in Haiti used Twitter to communicate because they had no other forms of communication with one another.

Pictures and stories of the victims got out of Haiti to the rest of the world faster by using Twitter way before news teams could even make it to Haiti.

In disaster events social networking sites do a great job at quickly bring information to the general public and getting the relief to those in need.