Today, news travels faster on social media than it does on news channels, and in rare situations news is discovered first on twitter before the news channels. For example, when the 2008 earthquake took place in china, twitter was buzzing about before the government was able to confirm the quake. Information during and after the quake spread at lightning speed through twitter from china to the rest of the world. The only way Chinese government officials were able handle the escalating attention to the internal crisis was by shutting down all access to twitter in china. (Twitter and the China Earthquake) These events lead to prove the power that social media, especially twitter, possesses in modern times is dynamically influential- but not always in a positive manner. .
The era of technology has brought about the fastest growing and constantly changing time of knowledge and communication. People of this rapidly amplifying age have adapted to a form of evolving with time. Twitter today is the most popular social media site among modern youth. Through twitter teens and young adults from the ages of 13-28 are constantly checking their news feed for updates on the latest hash tags, trends, news, fads, and more. Twitter is a very influential form of social media in both optimistic and pessimistic perspectives. The optimism of this social media network lies behind its power to spread information around the world at lightning speed. Charities, organizations, foundations, non-profit projects use twitter to raise awareness and even gain funds by informing people about causes. Organizations gain tremendous momentum from advertising on twitter about their newest fund raising. Research reports that over 50 % of people learn about breaking news on social media and 65% of media reporters and editors use social networking sites for story research. (Marino) Organizations will often times create their own hash tags such as "#RelayFor" from the American Cancer Society to encourage people to take part in their relay for life programs, or "#AnimalWellFare" from the National Humane Society to call attention upon animal rights.
