Sandy is year's No. 2 topic on Facebook

Social networking sites have become a popular trend in this day and age. Twitter and Facebook are great sources in getting information out the public about what is going on. Having a beach house down at the Jersey shore, I have been using Facebook to get information regarding how the conditions are down there. Currently they are not letting any residents down there to evaluate the destruction that has resulted from this storm. This new and improved technology, has created the ability to display information to people all around the country as a result of a simple click of a button. Pictures tell a thousand words, so getting to see first hand what is happening rather hearing it from a person who had the opportunity to witness it first hand. 

With this event it was reported that Hurricane Sandy was the second most popular topic on Facebook in the last year, behind the Super Bowl this past year. Being one of the most populated areas in the country and lots of people being affected, this resulted in lots of people sharing their stories about what has happened as well as pictures showing the damage. "At its peak on Monday, Sandy scored an 8.34 on Facebook's "Talk Meter," which measures chatter about a news event on a scale of 1 to 10 when compared with a baseline. So far in 2012, Sandy trails only the Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, which earned an 8.62 in February." Some of the other events that were talked about the most included: "First presidential debate: 8.18, Vice-presidential debate: 6.79, Academy Awards: 6.74, San Francisco Giants winning the World Series: 6.71, Hurricane Isaac: 5.24, and Announcement of Rep. Paul Ryan as Gov. Mitt Romney's vice-presidential candidate: 5.21." Facebook is just a measuring stick to the overall picture of how many people this storm has truly affected from Massachusetts to North Carolina. 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/30/tech/social-media/sandy-facebook-chatter/index.html