Japan: new uses for social networks

Publicado por La5e el 28/03/2011 Tweet

After the threefold disaster that the eastern coast of Japan has experienced and is experiencing, here, thousands of miles away, we are receiving tons of images of the tragedy, of its victims, of the civil response of the Japanese society, and of the most recent news about the alarming state of the Fukushima plant. From the very beginning of the disaster, the media and the swiftness and immediacy of social networks have made it possible for the rest of us to know live what is happening in the Far East. That’s the way it is, and we have pretty much internalised it: online communication has made us global and simultaneous, so we receive a flow of information that was unthinkable just 10 years ago and we can closely follow what’s going on. But in Japan it is being shown that social networks have not only served to keep us, who live so far away, informed. From the start, the most important Internet companies have opened up channels of communication to serve victims in order to help them out: Skype distributed coupons to make free calls; Google has made a search engine available to the public so they can look for people or monitor the state of the sea and warn about new tsunamis. YouTube also opened a channel designed as a point of contact for affected population that has lost track of family and friends. Click here to find out more!

Imagine the situation: among the displaced, the evacuees and the missing, there are many people who have lost contact with each other or who are looking for their loved ones. People can use this channel to record a message in the hopes that their family members will see it and answer saying they are okay. This new YouTube channel is also supported by the Japanese news station TBS News, who is recording part of the messages of people who have been lodged in specifically set-up shelters. At times like these, any help is small, and social networks, it is being shown, are doing their bit. Uncertainty is not a desirable feeling for anyone, and much less so for victims of tragedies like this... After seeing everything that's happened, it seems that there's no doubt that, thanks to channels like the ever popular Twitter (which the Japanese government stated has been 'extremely useful') and YouTube and the Google search engine for people, many victims have been able to contact their family members or friends and thus put an end to the uncertainty of not knowing if they are okay. The help these channels have provided has been and is effective and very quick in reaction time. Now’s the time for those of us who are far away to decide how we can do our part and how we can keep the solidary need of not forgetting about Japan alive, when the media, which we know to have a short memory, is beginning to do so.

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