Rainie and Wellman (2013) open Part 1 of their book "Networked" by telling the story of Peter and Trudy. As a brief summary, Trudy suffers a devastating injury that results in surgeries and an intensive recovery period at the hospital. Through the use of social media in what is termed "Networked Individualism", a community far and wide rallies together to support Peter and Trudy as they navigate physical, mental, and financial recovery.
This story resonated with me. Out of all of the uses of social media, this is the one I can fully support. I love the way a community comes to the aid of someone else in a time of need.
In my experience (similar to the story in the text), it starts with a tragic accident or diagnosis. A family member sends a few messages, or one group message, to other family members to let them know what happened. Those family members share that message with others, and even post it on Facebook asking for prayers. At this point, everyone on the friends list is aware of the situation. Now, we are gaining momentum.
The next step is for someone to create a Go Fund Me account, or a similar crowd funding type account listing the affected parties as the recipients of the funds. This gets shared on Facebook, email, any other social media account that the link can be shared on. Others can even see these campaigns directly on the website, without knowing the family at all. This is a great use of the social media to reach others and form a secondary community dedicated to supporting this family in need.
Another use of social media I've experienced in this situation would be once the family returns home. My church has a Facebook group set up for the 'Women's group'. Someone will make the initial post requesting volunteers to cook dinners and lunches. From there, a schedule will be created for a minimum of a week, depending on the severity of the injury/illness, to help the family to not have to worry about cooking/providing meals. This is all coordinated over social media and cell phones.
Utilizing a service like Google calendar would be a great way to organize a meal chain or set up a cleaning schedule. It would also be helpful to organize volunteers to help with childcare or transportation to doctor's appointments. This type of calendar app can be downloaded to cell phones and shared with multiple people.
There are so many ways social media can be used to support an individual's needs in a networked way, hence the term.
Rainie, L. & Wellman, B. (2013). Networked: The new social operating system. Boston, MA: MIT Press. [eBook - FSU access]
