Usage of Social Media and Smartphone Application in Assessment of Physical and Psychological Well-Being of Individuals in Times of a Major Air Pollution Crisis

Zhang, Melvyn WB; Ho, Cyrus SH; Fang, Pan; Lu, Yanxia; Ho, Roger CM

Research looking into how newer Web-based technologies, such as the Internet, advertising on social media like Facebook, and, in particular, the latest technologies, such as smartphone applications, in acquiring crucial information during a crisis is limited. Hence, our study focuses largely on how existing social networking sites like Facebook and newer smartphone technologies could help in the acquisition of crucial research data from the general population during a crisis. We applied our latest technology in the recent 2013 Southeast Asian Haze Crisis. The results that we obtained would be informative in helping researchers, public organizations, and governments to assess and gather information from the general population rapidly during a major crisis. Our research objectives were: did the general population use Internet technologies like social media and smartphone technologies to provide feedback to agencies regarding their physical and psychological well-being during an air pollution crisis, and if so, will these newer mechanisms (social media and smartphone) be as effective as conventional Internet-based website technological modalities?