March 27, 2016, in cities around Europe and North America, people were alerted to check in on their social media applications in order to let people know that they were alright. These people were confused, however, as none of them seemed to be near a disaster, much less the one inquired after: a bombing in Gulshan-i-iqbal Park in Lahore, Pakistan on Easter Sunday. This alert being sent out was a widely-publicized feature added in to Facebook, one of the most popular social networking websites and applications, used all over the world. The goal was certainly to allow victims to notify their families and friends of their safety, but the alert received by people all over opened the door to a new visibility for the disaster that may otherwise have
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Facebook is a social networking platform that enables users to post messages to other people, or to their entire list of friends; to post photos and videos with locations so that people can see what is going on in a given place; and read and share news stories as soon as they hit the press, so to speak. Twitter allows users to post short thoughts as they pop up, along with keywords that will connect their posts to anyone else posting the same topic. These can include pictures and videos, links to news articles, and experiences as they happen, complete with a time stamp. Crowdfunding websites are often linked to larger social networking platforms to allow users to share a fundraiser for their needs or causes. For the purposes of this short paper, we will be focusing on these social media, but there are many others that have arisen similar to them. Some are devoted to specific purposes, such as uniting demographc groups (Classmates aims to connect alumni of high schools with each other, and MeetUp aims to connect people who simply wish to “hook up” with another person for whatever duration they would like, for example). Others are devoted to literally networking people and businesses to expand visibility and audience, such as Google+ and LinkedIn. While all types of social media can serve the same purpose of expanding visibility for a cause or event, the most widely used social media platforms for those wishing to enact social change remain Facebook and
Facebook is a social networking platform that enables users to post messages to other people, or to their entire list of friends; to post photos and videos with locations so that people can see what is going on in a given place; and read and share news stories as soon as they hit the press, so to speak. Twitter allows users to post short thoughts as they pop up, along with keywords that will connect their posts to anyone else posting the same topic. These can include pictures and videos, links to news articles, and experiences as they happen, complete with a time stamp. Crowdfunding websites are often linked to larger social networking platforms to allow users to share a fundraiser for their needs or causes. For the purposes of this short paper, we will be focusing on these social media, but there are many others that have arisen similar to them. Some are devoted to specific purposes, such as uniting demographc groups (Classmates aims to connect alumni of high schools with each other, and MeetUp aims to connect people who simply wish to “hook up” with another person for whatever duration they would like, for example). Others are devoted to literally networking people and businesses to expand visibility and audience, such as Google+ and LinkedIn. While all types of social media can serve the same purpose of expanding visibility for a cause or event, the most widely used social media platforms for those wishing to enact social change remain Facebook and