Social Media or Survival Media
After hit snooze on my phone
alarm way too many times, I was finally waken up by a blaring tornado siren
outside my window forcing me to hop out of bed and start my day. I immediately
texted my roommates on our group text via the GroupMe app on my phone to see
who else was awake or if anyone had heard anything. Within seconds my mom was
calling me and told me a tornado was “literally coming to Athens in 5 minutes”
and to take cover in the first floor concrete stairwell of our apartment building.
Without even realizing it I gathered up “the essentials” (my iPhone, iPad,
iPhone charger), threw on shoes, and began assembling my sleepy roommates.
As we gathered on the steps, my
roommate Shannon began updating us with comments about where the tornado had
been spotted and/or touched down and where the storm was moving. I was flipping
between several weather websites and news outlets on my iPad but couldn’t seem
to find any information as accurate and concrete as her facts. I asked “What
are you on that is showing you all of this?” Her reply: “just Twitter”. Shannon
was receiving real-time, accurate updates and alerts during the storm via her
twitter feed. We knew exactly when the storm was over the stadium and the
tweets were spot on when predicting the amount of time left before we received
an all clear.
In the
meantime, our other roommate Haley kept blurting out facts about UGA such as
the evacuation of the SLC, classes would not be canceled, and of course the
occasional #FreeTodd tornado related comment. She was reading all of these
updates and statuses from her Yik Yak app. With time to kill, I began checking
my Snapchat out of habit and was surprised to see at least 20 of my friends had
uploaded pictures and videos to their “snap stories” depicting them taking
cover or seeking shelter from the storm. Many of the snaps included a description
such as “this is real”, “this isn’t a drill”, “hiding in my bathtub”.
Eventually I opened a snap that read “UGA says all clear” but it wasn’t for another
5 minutes before I finally received the UGA Alert message confirming the all
clear. As we huddled in the staircase blurting out updates and checking our
social media pages for real-time news I was amazed at the accuracy and our
dependency on social media. My friend even tweeted:
Amanda makes a great point. I
barely remember the days before I turned to Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter to
get my real-time news updates. Although social media is sometimes blamed for
our generation’s dependency on technology and lack of interpersonal skills, I
don’t think I’d have it any other way. I think social media has become a way of
life for most of our generation. I am thankful for the ability to be up to date
and informed at all times and receive news updates in real-time. On the other
hand, I’m not going to pretend that I don’t also enjoy staying up to speed on
the latest gossip, drama, sports news, or events happening via the social media
accounts of friends and users I follow. Considering there is never a moment
where my phone is farther than 3 feet from my fingertips, I am extremely
thankful and constantly in awe of the power of social media and the internet
amongst our generation. Whether that means hearing every detail about Todd
Gurley’s “indefinite suspension” from Georgia football (#FREETODD) or catching
the moment by moment progression of a severe storm, I am thankful for social
media and wouldn’t want to live without it.
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