How people turn to social media during natural disasters

Social media has redefined communication and made it even better, especially during emergencies

As Nepal experienced its worst earthquake in more than 80 years which killed more than 4,800 people, Facebook activated its special feature—Safety Check—which helped friends and families locate their near and dear ones.

By using this particular feature, users close to the site of the disaster can mark themselves safe and notify their friends. Besides this, Safety Check also urges other users to indicate when people they know are safe.

The feature was developed by Facebook after its engineers in Japan developed the Disaster Message Board to help people make contact during and after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Social media and communication

Social media has changed the way of communication. People now get news through it and companies consider it an integral part of their marketing strategies. It is often used as a medium for influencing voting patterns during elections.
 
Apart from all these positive features, social media is also slowly turning out to be a live-saving tool. In theory, it is a complete communication model where a user sends out information, receives feedback and responds to it.

Disasters and social media

Qualitative, quantitative and behavioural research suggests that social media has come as handy and of great service during natural disasters.