Yes...texting and twitter save me from everyday life and keeps me distracted while in class, but the two functions are currently acting to help bring awareness, aid, relief, and communication to the world.
It was twitter that first alerted many people about the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti. There were many tech-savvy people who survived the rumble and began posting information and twitpicing what they were seeing around them.
Twitter gave us instant information and on the scene photos about what the people were experiencing.
@MarvinAdy
After people saw what was happening, we all knew action needed to take place. The American Red Cross started a texting campaign where you could donate $10 at a time by texting the word "Haiti" to the number 90999.
This was an RT topic that exploded on the twitter scene as well, especially with celebrities. Those who know they have a big following knew that by retweeting this they would be able to get many of their followers to see it and hopefully respond.
As of around noon (ET), "U.S. cell phone users have contributed about $4 million to the Red Cross in $10 increments, by far the largest outpouring of support via mobile devices in history." -abc.com
Not only has texting helped with donating money, but it has also helped identify the whereabouts of those that are missing. Last night on the local LA news they announced that the U.S. embassy is encouraging people in Haiti to text to alert that they are okay.
Following were a few stories of how this was effected and positive to locate some Americans who were missing.
I think this is a remarkable effort and a great use of technology. This shows what kind of age we are in and how the tech-savvy generations are reacting to this.
Not only did twitter help raise awareness of donation causes, but it also gave us up to the minute information and in some cases views of what was going on.
This just backs up my beliefs on why twitter and texting are the two greatest inventions EVER!
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