Social media – Facebook ‘safety check’ during natural disasters
Social media, especially Facebook which has the highest number of active social media users (Check the Complete STATS for PRO’s here: Pdf link free) becomes the most active and resourceful site to check with loved one’s especially during times of natural disasters.
To ensure families and friends get the most updated information from their loved ones, facebook has launched a powerful and resourceful feature called “Safety Check” which is a simple and easy way to say you’re safe and also check on others.
Facebook Safety Check
At the time of a natural disaster: This Safety Check feature will help you:
Let friends and family know you’re safe
Check on others in the affected area
Mark your friends as safe
The most important aspect of this feature is: “Only your friends will see your safety status and the comments you share.”
How it works:
After a natural disaster when the tool is activated, if you’re in the affected area, you’ll receive a Facebook notification asking if you’re safe.
Facebook will determine your location by looking at the city you have listed in your profile, your last location if you’ve opted in to the ‘Nearby Friends’ product, and the city where you are using the internet.
In case your location is shown to be wrong, you have an option to show that you’re outside the affected area.
If you’re safe, you can select “I’m Safe” and a notification and News Feed story will be generated with your update. Your friends can also mark you as safe!
Similarly, during a natural disaster, if you have friends in the area (safety check tool needs to be activated), you will receive a notification about those friends that have marked themselves as safe. Clicking on this notification will take you to the Safety Check bookmark that will show you a list of their updates.
We think this is one of the most resourceful features from the social media giant till date. Of course, there will be critics to share the negatives of this tool too, but hey, if you can’t put a social media site to good use during a natural disaster to ensure safety across a social site, then what’s the point in using it, eh?
Do share your thoughts on this tool with us too. We would be excited to hear reader’s opinion and views on this.
On a much more serious note, we sincerely hope you never have to use this tool too!
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