Using social media to call for help in Hurricane Harvey: Bonding emotion, culture, and community relationships

Abstract

Social media plays a key role in disaster rescues, and it can facilitate feelings of support when people need rescue or want to tap into neighborhood relationships. Using semi-structured interviews of people affected by Hurricane Harvey in the Greater Houston area, we addressed our research questions around notions of social support. Using photo elicitation analysis and constant comparison analysis, three overarching themes emerged from the data that inform how social support functions in this context: (1) appreciation posts are a form of emotional support; (2) resources are a form of instrumental support; and (3) helpfulness is a form of informational support. Importantly, these support functions are not isolated, and they can appear in response to an explicit request, as an anticipated need, and as an emergent reaction to a different form of social support. We also find some support for intercultural differences especially considering that our Chinese respondents preferred to use WeChat to request resources and rescues, while other non-Chinese respondents predominately used Facebook. In addition, we found that neighborhood relationships were strengthened, and social support was spread through social media.