Communication has certainly improved over the last one hundred and fifty years. During the late eighteen hundreds, people were using telegraphs as the most speedy form of communication. During the twentieth century, it was the telephone and now it’s the internet. It’s instant and pretty much everybody has a connection to it. Using social media in natural disasters has turned to out of be a tremendous help to tragic-stricken people.
Famines, floods, earthquakes, war. All of these things were reported over a vast period of time. For example, in ancient times couriers would ride from country to country, bearing news of war or tragic weather. By the time they arrived, the news was old and certainly new developments had taken place. In the United States, the late 1800s saw the Pony Express as a way of delivering messages across country.
Thank goodness for technology, because in this day and age communication is instant. Although it has been referred to as data overload, it’s also a good thing. It has saved many lives in the cases of tragedies like earthquakes, fires and floods. Social networking websites have allowed people – anybody at all – to engage in the worldwide web and create exposure for certain situations.
Because of the rapid increase in this sort of information that’s provided instantly, it’s often been said that journalism is becoming defunct. However, it has helped in many ways. Earthquakes, floods, storms that might prove disastrous, and other dangerous situations have been thwarted with online networking.
Oftentimes people online will know facts or figures before a news outlet does. This is simply because people are there, on the ground. Instead of people reporting on a story, the networkers are the story. Many times you will see information here that you won’t get anywhere. It can help to bring relief to people who have been struck by a large flood or fire.
People who may not otherwise be able to communication might be able to get a message out on their phones. For example, people buried under piles of rubble have been found because they used their networking website to tell of their location and ask for help, which in turn led massive amounts of people to bring this to emergency workers’ attention.
While it might be said that internet and social media has changed the planet for the worse, it’s also changed it for the better. Emergency response time is quicker and tragedies are made known faster, so that people can be helped more quickly.
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