This is not a blog post about why it is important to donate money and knowledge to help the hundreds of thousands of dead Haitians nor is this about what’s happening on the ground every second of every day. No. This is a blog post about Haiti and social media, a look at how the internet is changing human perception from up close and far away; and how we’re quickly realizing in a way 9/11 never showed us, that we’re very very close to each other and we have the technology to prove it.
(This is also a media-rich blog post so if you are reading this in an email message, you probably want to click here and see it online.)
The country
At 27,750 square kilometers, Haiti is a small country, roughly the size of the U.S. state of Maryland. It has a population of 9 million, with a nearly 60% infant mortality rate, not to mention 2% living with AIDS. Adjusted to the hurricane-prone tropical climate and bordered by the Dominican Republic on the east and the Caribbean Sea to the west, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Over 80% of the people live under the poverty level. Most of the population live in urban areas — where there is potable water; less than 1,000 square kilometers of the land is irrigated. You can read more facts via the CIA.
And that’s just the beginning.
Do you have a better sense, now, why the 7.0-magnitude earthquake of January 12 is so devastating?
The earthquake and its aftermath
Pictures speak 1,000 words. Videos speak more.
The meat: Haiti and social media
The CBS video referenced Frederic Dupoux, a Haitian Twitter user. Mainstream media recognize the importance of social media. So, let’s focus on Twitter first. Rewinding time, here are his first two tweets when the earthquake struck:
Minutes later, he comprehended what happened and began using the #haiti hashtag, which continues to be be tweeted by everyone around the world every few seconds.
In time, people created lists, such as Jillian C. York’s manual find of 78 people and organizations tweeting the Haitian facts from the ground and from those in the know. Stories are shared and people are reaching out to each other. Humanity shows its beating heart. A snippet:
Facebook is no less active than Twitter. Unfortunately, people try to game the system with dishonest actions, such as one group with the promise of donating $1 for everyone who joins. Despite over 576,000 people joining, the group is a fake. Other groups are more real, such as this informational resource, with over 170,000 members, allegedly created by the Developpement et Paix, where people share their thoughts:
Better than the random Facebook groups are the organizations that had pre-existing Facebook pages, and outpouring is occurring both with people asking questions and clicking to photos and videos, For instance, the American Red Cross chapter of Miami, Florida may have 1,400 fans but people are posting questions to their wall about where to donate food and clothing and receiving quick responses that only monetary donations are accepted now. Moments ago, Red Cross photographer Matt Mareck shared some pictures that say more than I can write here, such as:
Need I go on? More forums are happening on MySpace, Vimeo, and other online networks. When terrorists forced the crashing of airplanes in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania in 2001, we had blogs and assorted internet tools at our disposal but the real-time web as it exists today was a pipe dream. If you deny the benefit of social media for information gathering and social networking, I’m curious why.
Your next action is a choice
You can do nothing or you can donate. It’s as simple as that. I wrote about the economic indicators of Haiti. The people are poor, the land is malnourished, and the earthquake caused both to be much worse. So, either you can twiddle your thumbs and watch the world go by or you can donate the cost of your next Starbucks coffee and send $5 to someone that needs it far more than you. You can also share the love. Jillian York and Amy Mengel have done their part and shared donation resources. InterAction developed a massive list of over 60 organizations seeking your help. Time Magazine explained how cellphones boost cause marketing to donate with a click of a few buttons.
The truth is not going anywhere. What are you going to do about it? What have you done?
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Ari, thanks for writing this up.
“Social media” is changing how we communicate. Actually, that’s stupid, all media is social.
Twitter and Facebook are changing how we communicate. And really fast too.
Right now, I think we’re so close to it, we can’t really “see” the extent of the changes. Except that it’s fast, and not censored.
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I agree. Thanks Ari; It was moving to see those tweets pouring in from people on the ground and to see the British Red Cross’ response.
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Has any Red Cross national chapter not responded?
I would hope that all have. My comment was concerning the tweet in your screen cap. Amidst all the chaos, it’s great to see clear leadership being exhibited both on the web and on the ground. I felt that @britishredcross’ message perfectly conveyed that.
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The big news surely got out much quicker with today’s new media tools. The great thing is that there are many ways to leverage the technology to benefit others, like being able to send a text donation via cell phone.
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The fusion of social media and fact that you have showed is of great relevance.The use of technology to spread awareness should be encourage more. present state of social media involvement is great in my opinion.
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Social Media should be used massively in such cases but people in Facebook are not serious IMO. If they had then people would not join $1 donating groups.
But Red Cross should have also thrown Ads or may be Facebook have sent Red Cross’s official page for Haiti donation so that they could raise donation and it would go in right hand.
It’s true Ari, it’s like watching a child grow up. We don’t see how fast it happened until we look back a little. Another huge improvement with technology is how easy it has become to donate. Simply text “HAITI” to 20222 and $10 will be donated to relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. Sometimes simple is better… and faster.
Haiti is in and out of Twitter’s trending topics all the time right now.
Too bad the scams are keeping up as well but social media can also help in exposing the scams before they get too big if everyone works together.
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It is so sad that the people are poor and now the earthquake made it much worse. I always donate when something like that happens. Facebook definitely changes the way we communicate. It is great that you can share your opinion with others on the net. Unfortunately there are people who really use this to their own advantage.
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How are people using Facebook selfishly?
I was reffering to fake groups that claim that they will donate 1$ for everyone who joins.
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