Status updates suddenly read like breaking news, faster than TV networks
and newspapers' websites. Only radio proved to be as fast.
Pleas for help, where to donate, and sometimes dramatic blow-by-blow
accounts of relatives' statuses and calls for their whereabouts unfold
every minute you refresh your Facebook home page.
Even news of death, from a contact's contact, sadly
was announced as a status update.
The Red Cross / Smart / Sun / Globe donation hotline
through SMS messaging and pledging to share
cash assistance became an instant, handy
tool to immediately allow us to do something.
Photographs posted every hour gave us a view
of how bad the flooding was, as personal an account
as one's garage view, or second-floor view if the waters
have gobbled up the ground floor.
The worst flooding in Luzon, after 20 years,
revealed a vital use for social networking sites
with Facebook presenting the most number
of applications and posting tools to make
everyone aware, and at times, notify the need
for help.
Unfortunately, those really affected can't
access a computer, or have lost their battery's
charge while waiting on their rooftops to call for SOS.
Most of those affected can't even afford a computer,
or internet access.
The ones lucky enough to have their internet at home
running, spared of waist to chest-deep floods
became the stranded ones' medium to shout out,
and present to the world their condition and dilemma.
Luckily for most areas, electricity was still running.
This was a rain-based storm more than a wind-based storm.
The sequence of events, from being caught by surprise
midmorning, how fast the floods rose, to its aftermath
and gradual receding of waters were all caught in real time,
from real people through Facebook.
Interspersing with the urgency of the status updates,
were breathers too, like posting a funny video,
to cope with the suddenness of this calamity.
Ironic were updates on people outside the country,
unaware there was a storm happening here,
the innocence and undisturbed world of their travels, and snapshots
of scenic locations elesewhere in the world.
Families abroad wanting to know the latest conditions
of their relatives here have Facebook as the most reliable source
of updates.
There's a newfound power inherent in social networking.
For now, it's coping with disaster.
It can even make or break a political candidate's ambition.
And maybe, God forbid, become an outlet for other
movements should a national distress arise.
This time, we are lucky the World Wide Web
coupled with cellphone technology
make it more real time, and quicker
to spread the news.
Now, it might be a good pre-emptive step
to gobble up the wireless broadband offers,
should electric supply fail us, and a computer with a longer battery life.
Hopefully, power supply is continuous in May 2010.
Facebook will be of help as it changes from Weather Watch to Election Watch.
That's another storm we have to face with the help of Facebook.
This time, we know how to cope with another disaster,
and more importantly, keep watch of anything that matters
in our country, and allow us to ACT immediately.
Bravo Facebook. It's about time you encourage everyone to open their own account,
in case some of your relatives and friend don't have one yet.
The more people use it, the more useful it becomes.
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