The recent UK riots have been the cause of much debate… not only about the state of society in general but the part in which social media has played in it all.
The media went crazy.. how was it that so many youths could gather so quickly? The co-ordination must be social media’s fault surely? Should they close down Twitter? Are Blackberries the sole cause of yob culture?
Twitter was a barrage of rumours and incitement and Blackberry’s BBM messaging service was blamed for the fast gathering of looters, but was it all bad news for social media?
Amongst all of the chaos and blame, The Guardian ran an article which was poignant called, ‘Social media can help riot-hit communities recover’
The article pointed out the positive side of social media and the role it can play in rebuilding communities. During the riots, individuals were able to gain reassurance from tweets by official government bodies and police twitter streams and you could quickly follow escalation of violent areas, validated by photography helping people to stay away from riot areas.
Critics are quick to forget that Social Media helped a great deal with the clear up and in bringing communities together to support local business and catch the looters. #riotcleanup and #RiotcleanupManc became UK wide trending topics on Twitter and Facebook and out of this, the humble broom became the new icon for community spirit and the embodiment of all things good.
Catching the looters became society’s way of managing the issue civilly, posting photos and videos and shopping those caught inciting violence as well as sharing success stories of arrests such as the yob who burnt down Miss Selfridge in Manchester.
As a Manchester based business, we saw the effect this had first-hand. Communities such as this pull together even stronger in times of crises and although social media seemed to play a part in the cause… the aftermath is where we should focus. A few hundred looters got together to riot, but to put this in perspective… hundreds of thousands of people came together to support each other in the aftermath and this is exactly what social media was made for.
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