2015 attacks on Paris showcase social media’s impact on individuals experiencing crisis by increasing knowledge, response, and support

When experiencing a crisis, people utilize the immediacy of social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter to post real-time updates about what’s going on, which has proven to greatly increase knowledge, preparedness, and response efforts.

Traditionally, social media was mainly used for leisure and casual social networking. More recently, social media platforms have evolved into extremely prevalent multi-dimensional outlets for obtaining, engaging in, and sharing information pertaining to things such as news and politics.

Facebook for example, was originally created as an easy way to keep college friends connected post graduation but has since become the main source of news for 30%of all Americans.

Large amount of people relying on social media platforms for news increases usefulness and dependency in times of crisis

Facebook is the most used social media site in the world, pulling in approximately 900,000,000 users globally. Pew Research Center (PRC)reports that 63% of Facebook users use the platform as a source of news. Twitter, the second most used social media site, has 310,000,000 users worldwide and 63% of Twitter users also acquire their news through the social media site.

Additionally, people use social media to participate in and contribute to news coverage. In 2014, PRC found 14% of social media users posted their own photos of news events to a social networking site, while 12% posted videos. This practice has played a role in various recent breaking news events, including the riots in Ferguson, and the 2015 terrorist attacks on Paris.

The PRC also reported that among all social media sites, Twitter has the greatest strength in providing breaking news and as-it-happens coverage. Many people around the world utilized Twitter for this feature alone during the Paris attacks.

The massive number of users on each site in combination with the high percentage of users sharing and obtaining news through them suggests the potential power they have during times of crisis.

People experiencing crisis use Social Networking Sites as source for SOS with real-time updates, increasing knowledge, preparedness, and response

A case study conducted by Dave Yates and Scott Paquette about emergency knowledge management and social media technologies during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti found using social media can help increase knowledge and response efficiency in times of disaster.

Firstly, social media gives people immediate access to critical, uncensored information about events as they unfold. Most importantly among these people are response teams and other individuals who can provide aid, as well as those who are at risk of being affected next.

“Social media channels can be employed to transmit critically valuable information to as many people as possible. Internet can nowadays speed up communication and awareness, beyond that of the traditional risk and crisis communication strategy because it allows real time communication,” reported Yates and Paquette.

Second, first hand accounts published on social media act as vital testimony. Videos, pictures, and even written content posted by those being affected contribute to a greater understanding of the event and help the development of future response plans. Such evidence also eliminates news coverage bias, allowing people to learn about the events without a politicized lens.

Program Manager for Risk Communication and Resilience at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, Holly Roberts, believes social media is a very effective tool for coordinating response efforts in times of crisis.

START Program Manager Holly Roberts

Social media proved to play a crucial role in coordinating and relaying information during the 2015 attacks on Paris. People being affected used social media to post pictures, videos, and written commentary about the events as they were happening. Some individuals not immediately affected provided eyewitness accounts. 

Experts and people in positions of power, such as police and governments, can use social media to post updates, opinions, and suggestions for response strategies, and other useful information, knowing it will be quickly distributed to a large audience. 

Immediately following the Paris attacks, the French government used Facebook and Twitter to release and circulate a ‘wanted ad’ for one of the men responsible for the attacks who survived and successfully fled the country.

Other organizations such as Eurostar and Air France utilized Twitter to update travellers, while NYPD used the platform to keep New York citizens updated about the potential risk of being attacked next.

Social media acts as a joining force for humanity

The borderless and interactive nature of social media unites people directly and indirectly affected in a crisis. Those directly affected utilize social media as a trustworthy source to call for help, while simultaneously warning others of potential risk. Others who may indirectly suffer from the event(s) feel they can turn passive observation into active response by sharing the information and expressing support.

For example, Parisians used the Twitter hashtag #PorteOuverte (open door) to offer shelter in their homes to those stranded in the French capital.

Facebook’s passive position was successfully turned into active response when it deployed its Safety Check feature, which allowed users in Paris to ‘check in’ to their personal page and let their individual social networks know they were safe. Safety Check also provides a page for users to check which of their friends are in the area and which have checked in as safe.

According to Facebook, in the first 24 hours after the attacks on Paris, 4.1 million users checked in using the feature - that's approximately one-third of the 12.1 million people who live in the Paris metropolitan area. Those poses reached 360 million users worldwide, the Washington Post reports. As another effort to show support, Facebook also installed a feature in which any of its users could layer the French flag over their profile picture.

Subsidiary sufferers of the Paris attacks spanned across the globe. In the case of a terrorist attack,
people all over the world feel threatened by the terrorist organization and sympathize with those

targeted because a somewhat equal risk of being attacked exists across borders.

To show widespread support, an image promoting ‘peace for Paris’ quickly surfaced and took over social media, along with the hashtag #PrayForParis. This hashtag became a worldwide trending topic almost immediately after the attacks and in the first 24 hours alone it had been used over 5.7 million times on Twitter, and 4.8 million times on Instagram, according to MSNBC.

Famous “hacktivist” group Anonymous has also taken an initiative to engage in active response through social media. The group is comprised of a compilation of average citizens with exceptional computer skills from all over the world.

The group declared a ‘cyber war’ against ISIS, the terrorist group responsible, pledging to remove ISIS’s digital footprint. They named the operation #OpParis.

Since the initial Paris attacks, Anonymous claims it has removed more than 12,000 social media accounts and numerous websites linked to the terrorist organization. As a group that was created on the Internet and relies on the Internet to function, Anonymous uses Twitter and YouTube as its primary sources to provide #OpParis updates.

START Program Manager Holly Roberts

Large number of users and channels create multiple perspectives and complicate informational accuracy and validity

The hundreds of millions of people using social media platforms for instantaneous and simultaneous information sharing during times of crises can cause confusion and even misinformation.

Multiplicity of players and channels raise questions pertaining to the inclusion and exclusion of players, channels and events, the validity of certain details, and which directions should be given as a response. During a crisis, who is an ‘expert’? Is it the person experiencing the crisis or someone ‘qualified’ to objectively evaluate the situation?

Public perspectives eliminate some of the concerns about lack of transparency from governments and the news industry, but some information might be false and can cause mass hysteria where it shouldn’t exist. Similarly, sometimes information shouldn’t be exposed because it could interfere with investigations.

In the case of the Paris attacks, misinformation surfaced on social media and the attempted 'active response' by users was tragic. Someone edited a picture Twitter user Veerender Jubbal posted of himself to make it look like he was involved in the execution of the Paris attacks. The edited picture went viral, and many people retweeted it along with threats on his life, and put an innocent person at risk.

START Program Manager Holly Roberts

The overwhelming use of social media throughout the Paris attacks prove beneficial and pave way for crisis management in the future

Social media has become an important source for the distribution of news, as platforms such as Twitter provide real-time updates about events as they happen.

Reviewing and analyzing social media usage throughout the Paris attacks will help people understand what to expect in future events. We can learn from and build off of the limitations to continue to improve knowledge, preparedness, and response during a crisis.

START Program Manager Holly Roberts

In the case of the Paris attacks, Miss Roberts believes the most effective way to go about fighting against radical Islam groups, such as ISIS, is to utilize social media in the same ways the terrorist groups do.

ISIS is using social media platforms - mainly YouTube and Twitter - as a recruitment method, instantly sending out persuasive messages to massive audiences around the globe to join their cause. Often times they use false information in these recruitment attempts, claiming the Quran preaches much more radical beliefs than it actually does.

The most effective way to combat ISIS and these radical, false messages is by teaching the social media-based global audience targeted through social media itself.

Social media is proving to be a critical technique in fighting 'the war on terrorism'. 

Grand Theft Auto has the power to change society for the worse

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is one of the most popular video games in the country. The fifth edition of the game, Grand Theft Auto V, was released in August 2013 and racked up more than 33.8 million players by November 2014. The incredible numbers earned the game the title of ‘best-selling game of 2013’. The catch? It’s also one of the most violent and aggressive video games in the market.

GTA’s wild popularity and extreme content is concerning for more than just the obvious reason of gun violence. While gun violence shouldn’t be so easily dismissed, there are less obvious – yet equally important – consequences from the game’s plot. For one, the entire concept

is to break the law as much as possible. From actual grand theft auto, to torturing innocent people and killing police officers, the game rewards its players for engaging in any level of criminal behavior.

Secondly, it contributes to the objectification of women in society through both violent and nonviolent actions. The sole purpose of the woman in GTA is sex, as they are mainly portrayed as strippers and prostitutes. The player is also encouraged to sexually assault, rape, and kill women.

The nature of GTA has the potential to lead to disastrous consequences for the younger generation and society as a whole in years to come. According to a Vanderbilt study about video game engagement in America, 81% of youths play video games at least once a month and 8.5% of them are addicted. The same study examined multiple experiments about student behavioral changes before and after playing violent video games and concluded that students more aggressive patterns did occur after playing a violent video game. Violent video games have been proven to lead to other individual consequences such as addiction and ADHD.

The high percentage of youth playing video games and GTA’s record-breaking popularity suggests that youth are playing the extremely violent game. Perhaps more importantly, the findings of the Vanderbilt study implies youth playing GTA are internalizing both the obvious and subliminal messages in the game. Unfortunately, this could lead to an increase in individual problems as well as societal delinquency.  

Facebook Proves To Be Most Efficient Social Networking Site in Spain

Only Two Years After It's Launch, A Spanish Networking Site Threatened Facebook's Reign Over Spain's Social Sphere

Commonly referred to as the “Spanish Facebook”, Tuenti is a social networking site native to Spain, whose original purpose was to connect Spanish speakers across the globe. Though it’s name is pronounced as ‘twenty’ in English, it is derived from the Spanish phrase ‘tu enti[dad]’, meaning “your entity”.

Founder and CEO Zaryn Dentzel launched Tuenti in 2006 with access limited to only Spaniards. By 2008, Alexa Internet ranked the site as the sixth most visited in Spain. Tuenti reached 10 million active monthly usersin January of 2013, which qualified it as the second most used SNS in Spain behind Facebook. Its overwhelming penetration and popularity allowed for gradual globalization efforts, which began in 2014 by reaching out to other Spanish speaking countries.

The nature of a Spanish-only site greatly limited Tuenti’s ability to expand both culturally and economically. As a result, Dentzel made the decision to break the mold. Tuenti is now available in the most pervasive European languages, such as English, French, German, and Italian. Since their decision to go global, Tuenti has hit 15 million active monthly users worldwide.

Tuenti Is A Facebook Clone In Many Aspects

Tuenti and Facebook are both social networking sites, aimed at keeping people in communication with each other via the Internet. But they share more than just their purpose.

Tuenti is very similar to Facebook in its design, down to the blue color scheme and lower-case lettering theme. The Tuenti profile and it’s features are almost identical to the Facebook profile – users have profile pictures, friends, notifications, a wall for posts, a chat feature, and the ability to upload photos as well as see the photos of friends. Tuenti also provides a feature to create events and share links to videos, just as Facebook does.

Along with the traditional computer mediated format, both sites offer mobile application alternatives. As a result, they have emerged with a ‘locations’ feature. On Tuenti, it’s called ‘Tuenti Sitios’ (Tuenti Places), and just like the ‘location’ feature on Facebook, the entire use-base is able to add any local place, interact with it, share it with friends, upload images, and write reviews.

Tuenti's Focus on Minimalism and High Security Has Ironically Minimized Chances for Expansion

Tuenti’s interface is much cleaner and minimalistic than Facebook. This is due in part to their decision to forgo banner ads and sidebar ads on profiles, which helps the site feel more spacious and less noisy.

Tuenti is praised for its privacy settings and high level of security. Tuenti is an invitation-only social networking site, meaning you must be invited to join the site and each user only gets 10 invites to send out. This feature alone makes the online Tuenti community feel more personal and safe. Additionally, all users’ settings are defaulted at maximum privacy for personal information.

Some critics argue that the interface and high security have limited the company's ability to expand and globalize. Tuenti’s main demographic is settled in 25-34 year olds, whereas Facebook’s central audience spans a much larger age range from 18 to 54. 

Tuenti Users Breakdown by Age

Facebook Users Breakdown by Age

Though, interface and security aren't the only factors working to distinguish the two networking sites.

Tuenti innovated the ‘best friends’ option. Perhaps as a result of their focus on privacy and security, Tuenti was first to designate real friends from mere acquaintances or contacts. Then, when posting a photo or writing a post, users can choose to share with just their best friends or with everyone. Personal information is also designated for real friends. Facebook has since adopted the idea and introduced it a couple of years ago.

Though they both have mobile apps, Facebook’s app is generally more user-friendly since Tuenti does not offer an app directly. In terms of in-site apps, Facebook offers free and fee-based apps that are developed by Facebook and third-party developers, which Tuenti does not. Additionally, Facebook’s apps give you the ability to play games, create music playlists, and obtain sports scores and up-to-the-minute news. Tuenti doesn’t have any of these. But they do offer data and phone service plans for users – 1 GB of data or 3 GB for smartphones and tablets, and calls cost 3 cents a minute. It’s kind of a cool idea, but it’s also kind of pointless.

Facebook's Revolutionary 'Global Networking Feature' Keeps It On Top

I spoke with one of my friends, Angela Amoros, who was born and raised in Barcelona, about social media use in Spain. “Tuenti is exactly like Facebook, but only for Spanish people. It’s difficult to globalize on Tuenti like we can with Facebook.” Angela’s frustration with Tuenti is perhaps the reason why it never had a chance against Facebook – it is a Facebook clone with much less actual networking to offer. Though it has recently started to expand, it took too long to incorporate the ‘global feature’, which might be the most important feature of all.

Globalization is one of the most prominent aspects of today. Through social networking sites like Facebook, social globalization is possible and easily accessible. Now that Tuenti is expanding, they have sacrificed their most unique element – something for Spanish speakers to call their own. Facebook is already the most used social networking site in the world, a Facebook clone is redundant and pointless.

This Week's Top News Stories In 22 Incredibly Powerful Photos.

As an amateur photographer and someone who aspires to be a National Geographic photographer / researcher, I believe pictures tell stories that words simply cannot express. Photos are extremely an extremely powerful way of presenting news and bringing a feeling of realism and humanity to a story that might seem incredibly distant. They are also effective in conveying emotion in seconds, just by taking one glance, whereas it might take someone a few minutes to read the story and express the same emotions. Additionally, I enjoy learning about current events, as do my friends and family, so I felt the subject matter was fitting as well.

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