A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.4 has struck South-west Pakistan, whose tremors were felt across Delhi, Gurgaon and other places in India, Afghanistan & even Dubai. And as always, Twitter has out-sped other media agencies like the printed press, TV press and the online media.
The power of Twitter was there to see. Less than a minute after the earthquake happened, a sea-line of tweets started flowing in from tweeps in Karachi, Lahore, Delhi and Dubai. Twitter has always been known to be faster than traditional media in breaking the news, and it has proved it all over again. Considering that it’s late in the night (almost 2am IST), many people from this part of the world weren’t expected to be active on Twitter, but they still managed to surprise everyone.
Facebook wasn’t too slow either. But the public timeline search of Twitter outdid Facebook yet again. Update: BBC was amongst the first of the traditional media houses to pick up the story. But again, way too slow in front of Twitter.
Keeping aside the effectiveness of social media, we hope, wish and pray for the safety of everyone in the affected regions.
Raju PP is the founder-editor of Technically Personal, which is one of the most widely read technology blogs on the web. He holds an Engineering degree in Electronics & Communication, and has previously worked as a Technical Specialist in Banking Software domain.
