Blog #7. Lurking It. Part One
I am going to be completely honest, lurking was pretty fun, especially on Twitter. I was stalking the refugee crisis on Twitter and Facebook, but I found myself mostly on Twitter. Tweets are so simple and easy, that people often will tweet the craziest and most obscene things, even about something as horrible as the refugee crisis.
First off, the refugee crisis mainly is a result from the Syrian civil war. It has been going on for five years now, and unfortunately it does not show any signs of slowing down. Many countries were initially helping to refuge these poor souls who are running for their lives, however countries are now backing out. This has caused quite a backlash in social media. There are basically two sides to this, those who want to help and those who do not. Daily there is huge amounts of tweets and articles regarding the refugee crisis, and people will viciously attack a viewpoint different from theirs.
My lurking on Facebook provided plenty of articles from news organizations. These are all interesting, but I want to know what people around the world think, and that is what I received from Twitter. I started lurking on Saturday night, and I would check Twitter and Facebook every night to see the plethora of new tweets regarding the #rebelcrisis. What I found was quite fun.
Celebrities are really involved with the refugee crisis. Imagine Dragons was at a Germany refugee camp. They talked about how serious the issue is, and how much it shocked them. Benedict Cumberbatch stated that he wanted to meet Home Secretary Theresa may to discuss the refugee crisis. Some people were not happy with that and tweeted about it.
Paul NuttallVerified account @paulnuttallukip 14h14 hours ago
Where do these self-important, self obsessed celebrities get off? Stick to playing Sherlock mate. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/benedict-cumberbatch-wants-to-meet-with-theresa-may-to-discuss-the-refugee-crisis-after-claiming-a6690511.html …
Imagine DragonsVerified account @Imaginedragons 19h19 hours ago
spent time w/these cute kids at a german @refugee camp today – crisis is real. http://iTunes.com/iwasme to help #one4
Another tweet that I found really interesting was from Time magazine. TIME.comVerified account @TIME Oct 11
See how refugees use selfies to document their journey http://ti.me/1LsTJRK
In it are plenty of pictures that show exactly what these people go through. People who did not live in this age of social media would never be able to see photos like these.
On Facebook I found many news articles about the refugee crisis. Facebook “news” provided me with more professional news, while Twitter gave me personal updates from people around the world.
It was surprising to see how controversial the refugee crisis is. In an article from Facebook, it talks about how countries are opting out of saving the refugees due to financial problems. On one hand it makes sense, but on the other hand it is immoral to push the refugees away. I found that some countries and people just want to live their lives without any “burdens” from these refugees. But I always find myself thinking, “Why do these people have no empathy? Put yourself in their shoes!” and it really frustrates me. I can see where these countries are coming from where they basically say, “Look, this isn’t our fault, and we don’t have the resources,” but I still wholeheartedly believe that it is our jobs as human beings to assist other people in need, no matter the cause.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chaker-khazaal/no-arab-gulf-countries-ar_b_8280448.html (Found from Facebook)
