National Geographic reports April 15, 2013 that social media gave survivors, concerned family and friends the opportunity to connect after the Boston Marathon bombing.
Yesterday concerned family and friends were congesting the airwaves trying to confirm who if their loved ones were one of the over 100 people injured. Unfortunately, so many calls for concerned was weighing down the system. This prompted the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) to tweet: "if you are trying to reach friends or family and can't get through via phone, try texing instead (less bandwidth)". Later, MEMA tweeted the Boston mayor's hotline number for locating individuals.
Bill Braniff, the executive director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism said:
"Authorities have recognized that one the first places people go in events like this is to social media, to see what the crowd is saying about what to do next," said Braniff. "And today authorities went to Twitter and directed them to traditional media environments where authorities can present a clear calm picture of what to do next."
The Boston Globe temporarily converting its homepage to a live blog that pulled in Tweets from Boston authorities, news outlets, and ordinary citizen. #BostonMarathon was a trending hashtag yesterday.
Even altruism was taking to Twitter, when New Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola took to Twitter to express his remorse for the Marathon bombings early Tuesday morning, saying simply “prayers out to Boston.”
And then he followed up with a deeper pledge to the city -- Amendola said on Twitter that he would donate $100 for every catch in his inaugural season with the Patriots to a relief fund for marathon victims, according The Boston Globe .
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/family-and-friends-take-to-twitter-during-the-boston-marathon-tragedy?cid=roadrunner