Social media has changed how people hear about news, but how does it affect how things that make news happen?
This weekend my friend's roommate got worried about him when he wasn't answering his phone. He has serious mental health issues and the amount of time he didn't respond left her worried.
I have been in this situation with friends before, but back before social media was big and smartphones made it easily accessible all the time. Usually a missing friend led to phone calls and texts to family members and friends who I knew. Usually in the end they were with some friend I didn't know.
This weekend the roommate posted on Facebook what her concern was and asked someone to check on him as she was stuck at work. This gave most the people he knew, though that she didn't necessarily know, the message that something was wrong. There came a flood of responses of people who wanted to keep an eye on the situation with notifications, someone posted that they had recently spoken with him, the roommate updated everyone when she called the police and then again when some friends found him and took him to the hospital.
Without social media there could have been a horrible news story there. Without social media there could be a lot more horrible news stories out there. Social media can be used for bad, such as bullying or to spread untrue news stories, but it also does a lot of good.
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