New research suggests that social media should play a larger role in emergency preparedness.
Using Typhoon Haiyan, which slammed into the Philippines in 2013, as a case study, researchers at Michigan State University looked into the matter and determined that more tweets and Facebook messaging might have made a difference.
"We need to think of social media not as an afterthought," researcher Bruno Takahashi said in a statement. "It needs to be integrated into emergency-preparedness plans."
When the typhoon made landfall, many people and some journalists were using Twitter to spread information. However, the government was not.
For the study, researchers analyzed more than 1,000 tweets that were sent around the time of the typhoon.
"We have to think about social media not just as this place online where people go to have fun or share mindless thoughts," Takahashi said. "It's apparent that social media can be a really powerful tool, not only for preparedness, but also as a coping mechanism."
Just as radio was years ago, social media helps people connect with others, lets them know there are others out there sharing the same problems.
"It lets people know they are somehow connected to others," he said. "People use social media to share their feelings, as well as help them try to make sense of the tragedy."
One way in which Tacloban City, which took the brunt of the storm, used social media afterwards is officials set up a center where people could log onto Facebook. They were given three minutes to send a message, letting friends and loved ones know they were all right
Takahashi said that social media messages can spread faster than natural disasters, including earthquakes like the one in Nepal last month.
"There was an instance in which people who had not felt an earthquake got a tweet about it, then felt it seconds later," he said.
The findings are detailed in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.
