Twitter: The New 911 Operator?

When it comes to our lives on a daily basis, how much of it is based upon and surround by social media? From the moment we wake up, we feel driven to be connected with the world. It’s our outlet for stress, announcements, and just plain snooping into other peoples’ business. But what about the social media network as a place for emergency situations? There was a story recently about a young woman who had her house broken into, and she posted on twitter to have someone call 911. This brought up some controversy. Are the social media networks the place to ask for help, especially in the case of an emergency? Society as a whole does not have the first impulse to help their fellow neighbor. We see someone, often in trouble or in need, and we immediately think we are not required to assist. Why? The thought that someone else will come to said person’s aide. This is a theory that has been discussed by sociologists for years. Now, applying this theory to this case with twitter, does it truly have ground to be successful? I say that it does not. How many updates, statuses, and notifications do we receive on a daily basis? How many of those are fictitious posts, or reposts? Too many to count, let alone rely on. The average person, seeing a post such as this young woman’s is not going to call 911 as requested. In a reader’s mind, there are absolutely no grounds for truth to that status. Anyone, either a friend or acquaintance of that woman would look for some other sign of distress, rather than relying on a social media network to inform them of an emergency. Our society today has become so dependent on their social connects, that it affects how we function on a day-to-day basis. Many, if not most of us believe that our lives are improved and easier because of these networks. But in a way, they have crippled us and reduced us to an electronic dependency.