Social media put to good use

A 27-year-old man from my hometown of Montreal disappeared last Saturday night outside of a popular restaurant, never to be seen or heard from again. On Tuesday morning, his body was discovered in the nearby icy Lachine Canal. There are no leads, no explanations, no clues.

I no longer live in Montreal but was made aware of this horrific situation on Monday morning when I checked my Facebook. Dozens of my friends’ status updates had been changed to reflect the disappearance and the search efforts. A Facebook page was created to keep the community aware of any updates, search parties, and ways to help. By the time his body was found, the group had 1804 members in about 24 hours.

Blog posts were and articles were written. Tweets were posted. To no avail. But the thing that sticks with me today, alongside a feeling of grief and sadness for a boy and family I do not know, is just how powerful the reach of social media really is.

This Twitterer said it best:

And while today one family will never be the same, maybe the next time something like this occurs, the precedent will have been set. Using our resources for good in a Web world that often perpetuates only the bad is a step in the right direction. And it is almost a cliché time of year for this lesson to be learned.

Happy holidays, readers, and remember Plato’s famous words: Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. May as well try and help.

Jill Notkin blogs at The Daily Grind of a Work at Home Mom when she’s not tweeting@AlexCaseyBaby. She is also the Managing Director of MotherTalk division at Mom Central Consulting.

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