Creepy, Yet Brilliant

An incredibly realistic application created by The Discovery Channel allows you to see how a pandemic would affect you and your family and real friends via your FaceBook feed. I read about this on what I consider to be a reliable source, Mashable and since it is sponsored by The Discovery Channel I felt it was safe to connect my FB account (which I rarely do). Once you watch the video which sets up the scenario, it suggests that you connect your FaceBook account or you can skip the personalization (but that's the part that makes it so real, so I suggest you don't skip that part). In the screenshot below, you see my real friends with simulated comments and videos.

Although a simulation (Discovery makes a point to alert you frequently that this is NOT real), it does make a good point about how social media plays a huge role in our everyday lives. Keeping us connected and sharing information during good times and bad is huge. People who are not connected in these ways lose out on so many things on a daily basis. Those of us who engage online with colleagues daily understand this easily, but in the case of something like a pandemic, terrorist attack or other tragic events, those who are not connected are at a huge disadvantage. 

Creepy and brilliant at the same time, on the part of The Discovery Channel as a promo for their new show, The Colony which will debut on July 27.