checking in
"According to Zuck's spin doctors, people don't rely on the police, UN or even the Thunderbirds when disaster strikes. No, no, no. They flock to Facebook."
It's true though, just look at the social media response to the Fukushima tsunami. People "checked in" on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Retweeting the Fukushima Nuclear Radiation Disaster: "Twitter was an important social medium for distributing information to millions of people worldwide, including in Japan, with the Japanese government sharing emergency information, relief organizations sharing shelter information, and ordinary citizens posting news of their local situations."
A Social Network for Emergency Notifications: "Yeah, you know, when we first started, we actually had that in mind, because we really noticed things like Twitter, things like Facebook. During the whole Japan earthquake tsunami crisis, there was a lot-and there's also another social network in Japan called Mixi. They really were leveraging that for information sharing and posting status updates of 'I'm safe' or 'Do you know where my sister, daughter, whatever is?'"