Marseille edit
Since last Monday, fires have raged in the Southeast of France. From the information and help to the victims, this event proves once again that the solidarity exists well and truly in the social networks.
The social networks suffer from a bad reputation and are very often accused of favoring the egocentricity, the stupidity and mockeries. Nevertheless, these platforms used by millions of people every day, can sometimes be strongly useful during particularly unfortunate events.
In Corsica, where about 2,000 hectares from 7,000 has burned, the needs are various as a great deal of solidarity. To help as fast as possible the people affected by the fire, two hash tags were created on Twitter: #corseabri and #sulidaritàpèbiguglia, to offer the accommodation to victims. A Facebook page, "a help to the disasters of the fires 2b", also lists all the demands and the helps provided by those who can: the mothers do not hesitate to give clothes for children, the others, due to a lack of ways, are ready to help people in need.
In the Southeast of France, hundreds of fire brigades take turns days and nights to put out the fire even if it means sleeping on the spot in the little decent conditions. The local population cannot be the big thing for their comfort; on the other hand, for the food, they respond to their call. The fire brigades of Rians, municipality of Var very close to flames, have asked do-gooders on their Facebook page to bring meals to the firemen who fight against flames on the front. The answer was not apparently a long time coming because they deleted the publication a short time after replacing it with the gratitude.
Should they leave the firemen in need? Never! If it is not the proof that the solidarity exists in the social networks …
Those who say social networks and event, also say abundance of sincere and fantasized information. They have teemed with the hash tag #incendies, propelled in "trending topics" on Twitter for several days. Everyone knows, as soon as there is something unusual in the world, hostile individuals take a malicious pleasure in getting wrong information. Thus it is difficult to figure out the right from the wrong.
In any event, it is always necessary to pay attention to the source before sharing information, whatever it is! The official accounts as those of the city halls, for example, do not hesitate to remind and by the way, to show their contribution.
If you possess a Facebook account, you certainly had to see announcements concerning the traffic. In fact, in particular events, the crowd movements have constituted a real problem for reaction forces and can place the population at risk. Taken by the fear, the desire to get out of the way makes the car big. And to fight against the traffic jams which would block the access to fire brigades, safety instructions and traffic information also go through the social networks. With 500 millions of tweets sent every day and 4,100 statuses shared per second, the media and the public entities have seized the necessity of using these channels to convey the information as fast as possible.
When administrations do not regulate road traffic, Internet users help each other. The reflex no longer listens to the radio but to ask for help directly to friends.
Among the demands, the instructions and the help offer, the social networks play a real role in tragic events. We have already seen it with attempts when Facebook launched "Safety Check", a way to indicate close friends that we are safe and sound. In particular, it allowed to ease congestion in the telephone lines and emergency numbers.
Often considered as a useless hobby or a waste of time for the youngest, the social networks are the true collaborative media which certainly, can be ill-advisedly used, and carry out the duty of communication in the company.
Article written by Marion Vannelli