Posted by: Dr. Dawn Higgins
on Mar 14, 2011
Tagged in: Untagged
My first introduction to Facebook was in 2006 when the site was mainly a social network for college students. It was the way I communicated with the young people who were the participants in my dissertation study. I had no idea what "friending" meant or how to invite someone to read my "wall". How things have changed in such short time.
Last week I met with the Children's Working Group of FEMA and discussed with them how the internet impacted children on 9/ll. Anyone who has a teen knows that their main way of communicating is through texting. One young girl who was 13 when her dad died on 9/ll told me how all of her friends were texting each other just hours after the Towers had fallen. These teens were checking in with each other to see whose parent had been found. Unfortunately, this young girl started to receive condolences from her friends and also from teens she really didn't know. Since this was on the evening of 9/ll, this young girl and her family were still hopeful that her father was alive. She said to me, " I was like, my dad didn't die yet."
Today, watching how families and friends of the tragedy in Japan are communicating through Facebook, I am reminded of the power of social networks. It is wonderful for these families to be able to communicate with their family half way around the world or just a couple of blocks away. With all of the warnings of the dangers of the internet, it's great to see the positive power of facebook in a crisis.
