Like a virus within the air, social media has pierced most of the living cultures, sodalities and verily billions of people, even the older generations, with its fleetly-spreading influence to an extent that it outshone the traditional media. This makes the social media a powerful tool for any aims.
For sure, you are all familiar with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok and YouTube and many other social networking and microblogging sites used nowadays. Perhaps, most of you have an access with these sites through your accounts. So thereby we can say that social media becomes so significant in our society, in our life and apparently, in our mode of living.
For Social Media transcends every now and then, there are times that people, especially parents, regard its apparent disadvantages over and above its advantages. Oddly, some researchers wonder if the globe itself is better off without its existence. But, did you ever think of the things that social media itself had shared primarily and therewith caused a significant change around you? Yes, you may not know but social media has changed the course of our fate.
Social Media and Calamities
Social media, primarily, has been one of the public’s agents in relaying information — it is apparently the most efficient one for even the social margins’ conditions are heard specially during disasters. As for instances, remember the super typhoon Yolanda that had brought vast destruction to the city of Tacloban, Samar and Leyte and many other areas on Western Visayas eight years ago and more recently, the super typhoon Rolly that had drowned and devastated the majority of Luzon provinces few months ago. With social media, people who needed immediate rescue had been efficiently responded in gear by the authorities and by the unity of the Filipino people.
Here’s how the social media plays its potent role especially during calamities. Social Media:
1. As the Voice of Hope
Since disasters usually affect vast areas, unity is needed during these circumstances. With social media, information gaps can now be filled. Forsooth, it can change the fate of every individual who needed rescue and assistance before, during and after a calamity.
2. As the Ear of Awareness
Since social media is like a virus with its spreading ability, public awareness with respect to several information such as evacuation mechanism, transport route-alteration and etc. has been widened even in the social margins.
3. As the Eye for the Missing
Information about missing individuals after calamities can now be disseminated directly with social media.
4. As a Hand for Assistance
Beside its ability to spread information, social media has became the modern hand in donating assistance in any forms. People can now use it in sending help for the survivors in a modern and easy modality.
5. Social Media in Empowering People
Since social media allows people to be able to take control of the situation they are in especially during calamities, people are definitely empowered with these faculties that social media gives.
Social media, if used efficiently, is indeed a powerful and still-transcending mechanism especially during disasters. The above infographic shows how social media has shared its role during disasters.
Social Media and Traditional Media
Understanding how social media differs from traditional media — such as Television, Radio and Newspaper publications — has a major impact on whether we are definitely using it efficiently. For us to know how the modern era evolved and has changed the way in spreading information from traditional channels to the modern one and to abate the abuse of social media from its real purposes, the differences between the two communication modalities are as follows:
| Social Media | Traditional Media | ||
| Two-way conversation Open system Transparent One-on-one marketing About you Brand and User-generated Content Authentic content Free Platform Metric: Engagement Actors: Users/ Influencers Community decision-making Unstructured communication Real-time creation Bottom-up strategy Informal language Active involvement Deep Analytics Paid, Owned, Earned | One-way conversation Closed system Opaque Mass marketing About ME Professional content Polished content Paid Platform Metric: Reach/ frequency Actors/ Celebrities Economic decision-making Controlled communication Pre-produced/ scheduled Top-down strategy Formal language Passive involvement Poor analytics Paid |
By these we can say that the modern era is so blessed having this conducive virus that secerns the 21st century from the old and conventional times — indeed, the social media in its transcending best!
“Social Media is neutral – what matters is how you choose to use it.”
It's Me, Chris 