Twitter Unites People to Support Those in Need

More and more often, we are seeing news stories about remarkable achievements of individuals on Twitter: reporting & photographing "Sully" Sullenberger's landing of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River is one high-profile example.

Overnight, I experienced the privilege - and stress! - of participating in a global effort, on Twitter, to save a young, suicidal woman in Jakarta, Indonesia. Our goal was to get help for her, and that required locating her; Jakarta is a big place!

The phenomenon started (for me) at 12:59 AM, this morning, when I received the first "retweet" about her high risk for suicide, and it did not end (again, for me) until 2:30 AM, when I received the first retweet that she had reported in, and was OK. In between was one of the most intense 90-minute periods I have ever spent in my life, as I joined dozens (perhaps hundreds) of people in trying to help her.

I have identified individuals from 25 states in the US (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin), 2 provinces in Canada (Ontario, Québec), and 12 other countries (Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the UK), who participated in the world-wide effort. Undoubtedly, additional places were represented, because a number of those who pitched in - just like the person we were trying to help - do not specify their location in their Twitter profiles.

This graph, showing Twitter activity for the topic "suicide," clearly illustrates the intensity of discussion and effort being invested in helping our Indonesian neighbor.

Helpers included people of all ages, and from many fields of endeavor, including a retired Navy chaplain, psychologists, and people from suicide-prevention help lines.

All applied their problem-solving skills or sent prayers, music, and supportive "tweets" to this young person.

What, exactly, did they do? A variety of things, depending on their creativity and connections. Interventions included:

• informing their Twitter followers, to extend the call for help as far as possible


• writing supportive messages to her


• studying her friends list, to see who might be geographically or socially close to her


• calling Twitter customer support (who did reach out to her)


• trying to trace her through her Internet service provider


• searching the Internet for other sites and social media profiles that might provide more information about her


• sending her inspiring music


• identifying suicide-prevention centers in Indonesia


• contacting the media and other agencies in Jakarta, who might have local means for tracing her.

Some did not try to help; they were concerned that the suicide threat might be "just a hoax." Obviously, many more believed that taking action, and risking looking foolish if the threat turned out to be a hoax, was a better alternative than doing nothing, and learning later that the threat had been real. The risk-takers mobilized to help; they could not "pass by on the other side" (Luke 10: 31-33), even though the "other side" might have been half-way around the world.

Today, I read a blog post by Buddy Stallings, Vicar of St Bartholomew's Church (St Bart's), New York. This excerpt, in particular, aptly sums up my experience of last night's event:

I think the impulse we have to feel sad (or happy or anything else) with another person is almost always good. Particularly, it seems to me the impulse to hold that person in the messy and mysterious place of our prayers, is something we should cling to with all our might. Though our prayers for others often quickly transmute into prayers for ourselves, praying in whatever way we do whether we think it is utterly impotent or magically effective always enlarges us and our world.