How often have you heard the term “it takes a village” – I’ve heard this mostly in relation to raising children. I think it now applies to social media.
More and more, when tragedies occur, the first thing we will hear is how their social media accounts gave clues or veiled indications that something was about to happen. This does not happen in all cases, of course, but it is heard more and more often. If that’s the case, why is more not being done?
Take the case of the recent Oregon shooting, the suspect’s social sites were allegedly filled with images of other shootings, guns, and the like. What’s more disturbing is that there was an anonymous chat circulating with a potential warning that this would be happening:
While the poster is listed as “anonymous”, why did no one involved alert authorities? In this instance, it was speculated that the other posters were like minded and were perhaps “egging him on.” However, perhaps if something was mentioned to someone, it could have been avoided.
On the flip side, a story recently made news where people DID act on what they saw. It was a widely circulated story about a young woman who was driving under the influence while live streaming using Periscope, an up and coming social media tool. Thankfully, as you can see from the bottom corner of the video, it is tagged with the city and state she is in. Part way through the video she also references a street name. People were chatting in response to her video, most encouraging her to not drive anymore, some simply not saying anything of substance. However, there were some who stepped up and called the local authorities; this woman was eventually arrested. Those who reported the incident likely saved her life and potentially others as well.
One of the potentially valuable benefits of the enhanced data collection methods in social media content is geotagged monitoring. Schools, law enforcement, social venues, and other similar entities are starting to realize the importance of this type of monitoring as a means of identifying potential threats in their community. By monitoring social data around their venue, they can be alerted to potential threats, or postings that indicate trouble in some way.
Of course not every community does this, or has the capability to do so. That’s why it takes a village – if everyone takes responsibility to report something “off” in social media, it can circumvent potential tragedies or help people in crisis.