Social Media for Earthquake Response: Unpacking its Limitations with Care

When a 7.8 intensity earthquake caused widespread disaster in Ecuador on April 16, 2016, citizens across the country self-organized to gather, mobilize, and distribute supplies to affected populations, assuming the role of ad hoc humanitarian logisticians. Drawing on ethnographic findings, we present a situated perspective of how these citizens straddled the boundaries of online and offline activity for earthquake relief. In doing so, we offer an enriched understanding of how various social media channels might support informal, on-the-ground, crisis response, but also where they fall short in the process. Studying the emergence of care where social media fell short allows us to make recommendations for technology design to improve the effectiveness of logisticians in crisis response. By examining the bodily engagement of our participants at crisis sites, their efforts to deal with material convergence, and how they interacted with social media for technology-mediated care, we also contribute an understanding of the sociomateriality of care that emerges amidst efforts towards crisis relief.