Facebook Is the New 9-1-1, Apparently
This may be a little disturbing to those of us who simply refuse to break down and get a Facebook account like any normal human, but in times of disaster, those people will probably be evolutionarily dismissed from our social construct anyway. Because it turns out that a whole 35 percent of us would post a request for help via Facebook if we couldn't call 9-1-1. Status update: I've fallen and I can't get up! (Also: I just ate a banana! Now I'm going to take a nap!)
In fairness, that 35 percent would post said request on a response agency's Facebook page and not just on their own personal page -- but they'd have to find and friend them first, of course. Meanwhile, 28 percent of savvy social-media-ites would send a Twitter message to responders.
Pretty much everyone (70 percent) thought that emergency responders should monitor social media sites. Which a lot of them do: According to an April report from the Fels Institute, 50 percent of city governments are on Facebook, and 56 percent are on Twitter.
Paired with this morning's post about love in the time of Internet, this finding seems to present solid evidence that the Internet is here, people, and finally an actual, real part of everyday life instead of something we just read about in our sci-fi paperbacks. AOL email account holders, take note.
[via Mediapost]
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