Massive waves on social media

CHENNAI: No matter if the massive quake in Indonesia produced killer waves or not, it sure caused a tsunami on the social media. In what was perhaps the major difference between the 2004 tsunami and the scare on Wednesday, sites like Twitter and Facebook saw a deluge of updates that provided second-by-second commentary on what was transpiring.Some of the earliest tweets announcing the quake originated from Singapore. “A mild #earthquake in Singapore just now,” flashed @BobPickard’s tweet with the hashtag that began trending almost immediately. Others in India, like @calamur, followed suit by retweeting updates from government and news agencies that kept a watch on the sea.With estimates predicting that Chennai might be the first city in the Indian mainland to face the waves, there was a flurry of activity from the city’s tweeters. Curiosity also came to the fore with some like  @sandeepvarma urging other people to go to the beaches and live tweet videos and pictures. However, a majority sounded caution and exhorted their fellow tweeters to stay away from the shore.On Facebook, the prospects of a tsunami became a recipe for humour as a photoshopped picture of Vijayakant threatening the waves to retreat to Pakistan went viral. After a high pitched afternoon, the evening turned out dreary as many users wanted to stop discussing the tsunami that never came. An irritated Karthik commented in Tamil, “People don’t mind dying in tsunami but they just can’t stop posting status updates.”