It's been easy lately to find people knocking social media in all of its forms...Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and our own LiveCloud corner of the world as well. Often criticized as a time-sucker, haven for inane lifestreaming updates, and nest of snake oil salesmen, social media can also be life-affirming, generous, and useful.
Witness the outpouring of Haiti earthquake news and aid information via all of the online communities available. Twitter has been at the very forefront of serving on-the-ground reports, and numerous other social media sites have collected donation info and are harnessing technology to alleviate the suffering.
Just another reminder that at the other end of each username is a real-live breathing human being.
This was the biggest list of aid options I found:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...lief-h_n_421014.html
This might seem like an anomaly, but online connections have always run deep. In the last 12 years that I've been involved in online communities, I've mourned the loss of virtual friends (still miss you, WebProf), celebrated the births of all three of our children, and rallied around members who were involved in Katrina fallout. I've seen entire communities mobilize when someone went missing in cyberspace, organize folks to go check on someone who posted that they felt suicidal, and other occasions too numerous to mention.
Social media is not just an empty, meaningless term. It describes how all of us are interacting with each other online in myriad ways. Lets use this awesome, powerful force to direct our attention on the survivors in Haiti. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
Witness the outpouring of Haiti earthquake news and aid information via all of the online communities available. Twitter has been at the very forefront of serving on-the-ground reports, and numerous other social media sites have collected donation info and are harnessing technology to alleviate the suffering.
Just another reminder that at the other end of each username is a real-live breathing human being.
This was the biggest list of aid options I found:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...lief-h_n_421014.html
This might seem like an anomaly, but online connections have always run deep. In the last 12 years that I've been involved in online communities, I've mourned the loss of virtual friends (still miss you, WebProf), celebrated the births of all three of our children, and rallied around members who were involved in Katrina fallout. I've seen entire communities mobilize when someone went missing in cyberspace, organize folks to go check on someone who posted that they felt suicidal, and other occasions too numerous to mention.
Social media is not just an empty, meaningless term. It describes how all of us are interacting with each other online in myriad ways. Lets use this awesome, powerful force to direct our attention on the survivors in Haiti. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
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