Organization Uses: Politics and Attacks

I found the topic of this week’s blog post and discussion to be very fitting with events that have occurred in the world today. This morning, Tuesday March 22, 2016, there were terrorist bomb attacks in Brussels, Belgium. According to http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/22/471391497/what-we-know-terrorist-bombing-at-brussels-airport there were three major bomb that went off killing approximately thirty people, and injuring hundreds of others. Although these attacks are completely horrific, I am amazed at the part that social media plays in situations such as this one. I originally read about the incident on Facebook and quickly googled “Belgium bombings” to find out more information. The first link that popped up was http://www.cnet.com/news/belgian-capital-locks-down-after-explosions-at-airport-subwayfacebook-activates-safety-check-tool/. This articled discusses the activation of a Facebook safety tool that allows people in a disaster such as this one to communicate with people that they are okay. Facebook activated this tool after the bombings this morning, and it also played a huge role after the attacks on Paris, France just a couple of months ago. The article shares that Facebook is not the only company or tool like this, as the Red Cross also has an app with similar functions. We also had someone share in our class after the attacks that hashtags became very important and influential after the attacks in Paris. Another platform at https://www.reddit.com/r/belgium/comments/4bgowb/brussel_attacks_megathread/ provided a live stream that was an ongoing thread of updates as to what was happening in Brussels. With this feed people all across the world could be informed with what was actually happening and the steps that were being taken to assist. This feed also included what several world leaders were saying about the attacks and sharing their words of support. This is truly incredible to me. With the development of social media we have so many ways of contacting those we love, and getting involved in situations where we just want to show love. I say this over and over in my blog posts, but social media does make our world a much smaller place. From sharing insignificant, funny images to saving lives, social media seems to cover just about every sphere of communication.