Social Media and the 2013 Boston Marathon

What a crazy past couple of weeks it has been... Before I even begin this post, I want to express how truly sorry I am for everyone affected by the tragedy that occurred Boston recently. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you, and I hope that justice is brought to those who caused it. According to Twitter, it looks like my wish will be fulfilled, which brings me to the idea of this post...

According to recent polls, over a quarter of Americans said that they received news of the bombings via social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. While this isn't surprising since many of us get our news through these social media platforms these days, it's a little crazy thinking about how the social community affected the rest of that day's happenings:

• Many people around the world used social to check on family members and friends who were in Boston that day.
• Although many users first heard about the news through social, a lot of the information was incorrect. Even traditional news outlets misinformed their social community.
• Several posts contained graphic images that some considered inappropriate to share.
• Over 60 percent of Americans stayed up-to-date on the day's developments through social sites since not everyone was near a television that day.
• The FBI posted messages on Facebook and Twitter asking Americans for any information they had on who may have been behind the bombings.

The thing that stuck out the most to me was the first point that I mentioned above. So many people around the world were worried to death about their loved ones and were looking everywhere for assurance that they were safe. News stories and personal posts immediately popped up on social sites of lists of people that had survived, had not or were injured. I witnessed this myself when I saw someone that I follow on Instagram tag several of her friends who competed in the race in a picture she posted of Boston asking if they were safe. (Thankfully, all of them responded saying that they were okay.)

I was also very impressed with how proactive the FBI was in looking for the potential suspects and asking everyone with any information to contact them via social, rather than keeping the investigation solely internal. You know Facebook and Twitter are legitimate media sources when the FBI uses it in a situation like this.

While all the people who were affected by this will continue to be in my thoughts and prayers for a long time, there are two people who got overlooked as a result of this tragedy. Lelisa Desisa and Rita Jeptoo: Congratulations! Your hard work and diligence in training and the race are not forgotten. You deserved to win, and you definitely deserve recognition for it as well amidst all of this chaos.