In this article, Justin Mitchell acknowledges social media as a huge platform to spread news so rapidly. On Sunday Feb. 10th, a huge tornado touched down in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, causing severe damage to the entire town and the University of Southern Mississippi's campus. Around 5:30 PM, a Hattiesburg resident posted a picture on his Facebook of the tornado touching down. Just seconds later, the picture had been re-posted and shared on Facebook over 38 times. The Sun Herald contacted the poster of this photo to ask permission to post it on their Facebook page as well.
By 6 PM Twitter was also trending with updates under #Hattiesburg and #Hattiesburgtornado. The Weather Channel even used Twitter to share and post a video of the tornado on their website. The fact that we can use social media to connect to to others so far away, and experience what they are going through around the same time they are actually experiencing it, is a very extraordinary thing. I first heard about the tornado when a good friend of mine instagrammed a picture of the tornado. I immediately texted her and a few of my other friends who live and go to school in Hattiesburg to make sure they were all okay. I went through pictures and videos on Facebook after so I could see more vividly what had happened. I then turned on the news to find out more about the storm and the damage it had done.
It is funny that in today's society a news channel is almost looked at as a secondary resource by many. I was first informed about the storm through social media, and explored it further through other social media websites. The news was my last resource. Social media allows us to share real life events with others as they are happening, and I think this is one of the reasons it is such a blessing.
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