Social networking sites are usually used to communicate with friends and share status and pictures but during the time of calamity here in the Philippines, Facebook and Twitter was used to help one another. During the flood, the said social networking sites were used to help those who are in need. I was amazed how the said social networking sites played a big role during that time.
With the help of the said sites, it made it easier for our rescuers to locate not just those who needs rescue but also those who need relief goods. Without the said tweets of those concerned citizens, many might already be inside body bags due to drowning and starvation. It just shows that we are not just using the said sites for fun but it can also be used as a tool to help. Twitter was even used by the MMDA to give updates regarding not just the traffic in the metro but also regarding the flood. Tweets will tell you easily where and how high the flood is. This made it easier for motorists to prevent passing those flooded streets and look for alternative routes instead. Some concerned citizens even tweets MMDA to help with updating the metro.
At that time, electricity was temporarily turned off to prevent accidents involving water and electricity. You might ask yourself how they managed to use their computers to tweet. I bet that most of them did use their mobile phones to tweet. In this present era, mobile phones nowadays can already be used to access the web which means that you could be online anywhere at any time.
Twitter and Facebook was also used to circulate funny pictures involving Filipinos smiling despite of the flood. Some of the pictures involve a man riding his jet ski, a man having a hair cut while submerged in flood waters, a group of teens playing DOTA and also the picture of a mermaid. One of the funniest which also circled the net is the video of kids having their own “diving olympics” at the Quiapo underpass which was also submerged in flood waters. The phrase “Baha ka lang, PINOY ako!” also circled around which just proves that despite what is happening around us, we can still smile.
In this article, I just want to emphasize how the said social sites were used to help. Without the help of tweets and everything, I just can’t imagine how long rescue operations will take to manually search each house for those who need help.
