Soon after the attacks on Paris on Friday night, smartphones across the world lit up, as Facebook told us which of our friends were safe. The girl from your university course whose name you didn’t immediately recognise? She was safe. The friend you didn’t realise was in France in the first place? Safe, too. Alongside the list of the safe was another, unsettling one: those not yet accounted for.
Of all the reasons why the Paris attacks received such widespread attention, especially on social media, Facebook’s safety check seems particularly significant. It’s hard to feel disconnected from tragedy as you receive personalised updates linking it again and again to your life and your friends’. As the updates arrived, it felt natural to flick from the Facebook app to Instagram, and republish Jean Jullien’s cartoon (at one point on Saturday morning, my feed was a solid wall of Eiffel Tower peace signs). When Facebook asked if we’d like a French flag on our profile pictures, it felt natural to say yes.
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