From fomenting revolutions in north Africa and the Middle East to keeping in contact with -- and sometimes simply locating -- victims of a disaster, social media's immediacy impacts how society reacts to disasters.
Sharing locations, health updates, circumstances on the ground and videos and still images of a catastrophic event also inform people of just how impactful these things are, on the ground, in real time.
Videos on YouTube surrounding the 8.9-magnitude earthquake offer a sense of the enormity of this temblor.
