I don't use Twitter or Facebook, and I don't know how they work. All I know is that people use them to waste time letting the world know "I'm going to the grocery store" or "I'm watching reruns of Hogan's Heroes". I hear frequently that they mine their users' personal info to a deep degree. Yet frequently I read about Twitter and Facebook being critical communication tools during emergencies that have cell service.

How does this work? If the infrastructure is intact, what do Twitter and Facebook do for you that a cellular call, text, or email don't do? If these tools are useful, how do you use them without giving up your personal info to the cloud?

Of course the Twitter and Facebook program initiatives (seen so often on CNN foriegn affairs news programmes) to provide a computer based insurrection tool to non Empire client states has of course recently has a little bit of blow back (CIA term I believe) with the organisation of the English riots by the sick morally corrupted underclass.

I prefer the British Security Services less well known Friendface.

Facebook and Twitter are what you make of them. If you don't use them, you are going to hear about the most extreme uses, good or bad. I have a Twitter account, but I don't use it anymore. Twitter is a bit more connectivity than I need.

Facebook is highly customizable, you can set it up to have as much or as little privacy as you want. I have some friends who post about once every four months, and they don't allow anybody but close friends to post on their wall. I have other friends who have 2,000+ friends, post everyday, and allow anybody to post on their wall...to each, his own.

Facebook can be highly valuable in an emergency for several reasons:

-You can send a text message to Facebook when cell service isn't quite good enough to keep a phone call connected. You just need a burst of connectivity to send a Facebook message.

-In my experience, Facebook is more reliable than cell, text or email at getting to a large group of people in a speedy fashion. At all times, it seems like at least some of my friends are on Facebook. If I sent out an emergency alert, I'm sure at least one of my friends would pick it up and run with it right away. I don't have the same confidence with text or email.

-Facebook has a "News Feed". You could literally go to your News Feed and see the most recent post from one of your friends. You could send a message specifically to that friend who just posted because they're likely to be online at that moment. You can't do this with cell, text or email.

-Contacting someone on Facebook means the person is on the Internet and is capable of performing Internet searches (e.g., Google) immediately. This is not necessarily the case with cell, text or email.

DON'T GET ME WRONG. Sometimes cell, text or email is better, just like sometimes a ham radio is better. Each technology has its own advantages. Overall, rationalizing your way out of using a particular technology is dumb. At least try something out and see for yourself.

Cell phones were virtually useless for the first few hours of 9/11 and the system was overloaded again during the east coast earthquake two weeks ago.

Texts often go through when cell calls won't.

Facebook turned out to be a very good resource for finding out the earthquake's effects around the region as it provided a lot of input in one place -- personal experiences and re-posts of news media reports. Facebook is also an efficient way of letting people know you're okay.

Facebook was also useful during Hurricane Irene. Friends and I used it to receive information and to lobby for attention from the power company after days of being without power.

Twitter could have provided a similar service as far as receiving and disseminating information, but I don't use my Twitter account much.

I'd be dealing with a lot more phone calls if not for Facebook and Twitter.

You should carefully consider the privacy controls available (or not), how wide you want your Facebook or Twitter circles to be and what kind of information you are comfortable with sharing with those groups.

Ever mindful that it could be discovered in a background check later on....

The best feature about Facebook & Twitter is that you only have to send (and be charged for) one text message which will then be recieved by everyone who is "following" you. This is much more convenient then calling all your "out-or-area" friends and family to let them know what's going on.

I have my "Merriwether" persona Facebook and Twitter accounts linked so that anything I post on my facebook account automatically gets sent out on my Twitter feed, which makes it even more convenient.

Many emergency services providers are also setting up feeds to get out information to the people in their areas. They post stuff about possible dangers (weather, flooded road, WILDFIRES, etc) and how to escape, where to go for help and stuff like that.

Here in Houston for the Blast-clan it's useful. If you don't have many friends or family out of state or in other distant locations or if the fire/police/other emergency units don't have feeds then maybe these social networks aren't all that useful for you. Security-wise, you can set them up with no personal information at all and just allow known friends/family to access it.

-Blast

Another benefit of Twitter, if you have network connectivity, is that it updates its search ability faster than Google updates its info via it's internet-wide spiders.

For instance, if you're in a post-thunderstorm area, and you're trying to find out if a main road road is clear between your home and a family member's, chances are a busy road should be traveled by someone with a smart phone. A quick search on Twitter for the road's name, and you'll possibly find a tweet about it (especially if a tree has fallen in the middle of it). At least if there are reports, it'll show up hours more quickly on Twitter than as a news result on Google.

I don't use Twitter so I can't comment on that.

However, regarding Facebook - that is how I found info on my friends who were in those tornados in Alabama a while back.

And Facebook is how I found info on an old friend of mine who fell, having a severe head injury. I was able to search out his wife, kids, old friends from high school and find out what had happened and how he was doing.

So while I used to scoff at people wasting time on Facebook, I sure don't any longer! Facebook was also a dynamite way to keep in touch with my daughter while whe was doing college study-abroad in Tasmania. And if she wasn't posting, then I could see her Facebook "friends", identify the ones also in Australia, and check their pages for updates on what they and my daughter might be doing. This worked most excellently!

Facebook is useful enough if you only linked news feeds from state, federal, organizations that you seek information from. I use FB as often a day as I can. On top of the friends aspects, anytime one of my business/professional pages I link to updates, i see those too. And by those I mean pages like FEMA, Arizona emergency management (good for wildfire updates this time of year), fish and wildlife state and federal, my local police and fire departments, certainly all the sports and endurance pursuits I follow. I seem to have picked up a Merriweather edible plants page.

I think those that DON'T use facebook would be very surprised at how much timely and relevant information that can be found on the "Most Recent" status update page. I found out the other day that a friend of mine was hit by a truck, on purpose, while she was riding her bicycle. her boyfriend updated her page b/c she was in surgery. I found out that a wildfire had started in my desert running area and the road was closed. it would have wasted 90 minutes of my time round trip to just be turned around at the roadblock.

For the record, I don't use Chat, I don't play any of the games

To use Facebook and Twitter for emergency purposes, you have to set it up as such. You have to set it up to get updates from various emergency management authorities and from the people you intend to "survive with." You can get quick updates from your people to know how/what they're doing, where they are, etc., and to give the same information about your location, etc. to a large number of people quickly and efficiently.

Some people use Facebook to network for work, or to meet guys/gals, etc. If that's what you normally do on these sites, you shouldn't expect much during emergencies. Similarly, you don't have control over what the people you'd like to survive with use Facebook for. They might use Facebook primarily to share knock knock jokes. But you'll be able to keep a line of communication open, and it's an efficient way to see who's OK and who's not.

DB

Related issue, my sister and mom do not use the Internet at all. They're quite proud of their technophobia. It irritates me to no end. They're supposed to be on my emergency contact list, but I can't put them there because they're not reachable. They always have about 8 excuses every time I bring up the problem. Somehow, it always becomes my fault why I can never reach them in a timely manner.

Also, having an uncharged cell phone is usually a planning error. My sister's cell phone is always off and seldom charged. Don't be like her. If you don't have a charger in your car, you should buy an extra one specifically for your car. I have five chargers: bedroom, office, both cars, and laptop bag. I bought my charges in bulk from EBay, super inexpensive and actually better than the original.

You need to be at least somewhat connected. I consider my connectivity to be a responsibility to my loved ones. It's so easy to be connected nowadays. Things like Facebook and Twitter are point-and-click FREE services. The computer geniuses have made it so easy for for all of us. In this day and age, there is NO VALID EXCUSE.