When Social Media Sites Care

I’m convinced that we are living in the future. Sure, I still can’t teleport, BUT Nike is working on the self-lacing “Back to the Future” shoes… so, soon. Trust me, as a Senior Social Media Account Executive I see it every day. We are the connected generation. We share, and over-share, everything, both good and bad.

That being said, I’ve previously written about how the community of the internet is changing the world for good, but recently there have been some interesting changes in making the internet, particularly social media sites, even better. Not just more efficient and sleeker, but actually improving the lives of people who use social media.

The social media giant, Facebook, rolled out a couple of impressive new features that are going to help many people. The first is called Safety Check and is exactly what it sounds like. In the event of a natural disaster, Facebook will ask if you are safe, notify your friends and let you check on others who might be in the affected area. Now, this may seem unnecessary considering you could just text or call, but as far as efficiency goes, this is the easiest and quickest way to let a large group of people know you are okay.   

The next tool Facebook introduced is a bit of a downer, but is pretty impressive and with our ever-connected lifestyles, can and will help a few people out. Facebook now has an option to report suicidal content. While it may not be this extreme, we’ve all had that one Facebook friend who is constantly sharing sad, upsetting or downright disturbing and concerning content. You probably have someone in mind just after that one sentence.  This new feature allows you to anonymously report a friend you think may need some help. While I hope I never have to use this particular feature, it’s an incredible idea that could save lives.

Forefront FB v8 from Mimi Gan on Vimeo.

While sometimes it feels as though we have replaced human interaction with social media, I find Facebook’s effort to create an even more user-friendly (maybe the word I should use is people-friendly) place is refreshing. Nothing is ever going to replace a phone call to a friend in need or actually going to visit someone, but I think if more social media sites took steps like these, the future of our lives online would be a little better.

What do you think about Facebook’s new tools? Do you wish Twitter had something similar? Shoot   Integrate a tweet about it! 

Written By Kaitlyn DuBose

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