In the past week, “Text ‘Haiti’ to 90999” has become a ubiquitous phrase seen and heard throughout the U.S.–almost as ubiquitous as the news of the catastrophic 7.0 earthquake that struck the small island nation. Mass text messaging, coupled with Twitter and Facebook updates, have helped relief efforts by disseminating info about easy $5 and $10 donations to the Red Cross, Partners in Health and other organizations. Millions of dollars have been raised. Just as was the case of the Iranian election protests this past summer, the global exchange of digital information has connected the world with the plight of the Haitian people, allowing relief to flow more quickly and in greater quantity than ever before.

What perhaps is most surprising about the aid efforts is not the dollar amount that has been raised, but the social significance of these new media forms in starting and perpetuating the movement. Who would expect the United States would find, among the everyday minutiae of second by second tweets and status updates, a heart aching for the people of Haiti? As text messaging slowly erodes verbal communication from English to acronym and status updates elevate the trivial to earthshaking, the response to aid Haiti casts a refreshing light on our media obsession. While the Editorial Board still holds mixed feelings about the long-term social impact of digital media and networking, the disaster of the last week has proven how invaluable these resources may prove in a crisis situation.

Perhaps even more important than the ability to speed donations is the social media’s capacity to reunite the scattered survivors of this calamity; Facebook alone has allowed the Haitian people to locate or search for lost family members in the ruins of Port-au-Prince, to keep family members in other countries updated on their situations and to make the world vividly see the effects of the earthquake on real people. The democratization of media has only begun to become apparent. The summer protests in Iran were experienced by the larger world through the lens of the cell phone camera and Twitter feed. Haiti, in a similar way, has become an epicenter of life-changing use of media that has yet to be seen.

The threat of new media, however, is that these innovative uses of what we consider daily necessities will soon become too commonplace, thus losing their emotional effect and significance. What this tragedy has shown, however, is the power that our mere cell phones can wield when what truly matters–the human heart–is deeply engaged. As new channels of communication open in the future, we must consider the ramifications of our actions in media. Do not let the simplicity of donating or ease of learning the breaking news cause us to forget the human side of the story, or the value of reaching out to others in need. The real miracle that has come out of this tragedy does not lie in the design of a cell phone, but in the hearts of those who have reached out, and continue to reach out, to the people of Haiti.