--- title: Five Best: Social Media Spots Issues Faster than the Police description: Social media can spot civil disturbances much faster than the police, taking a photo may help you get rid of your old stuff and more. canonical: https://time.com/4834625/social-media-can-spot-civil-disturbances-faster-than-the-police/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-27T16:00:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:43.552Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Social Media Spots Issues Faster than the Police og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4834625/social-media-can-spot-civil-disturbances-faster-than-the-police/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Social Media Spots Issues Faster than the Police twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Social Media Can Spot Civil Disturbances Faster than the Police by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 27, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jun 27, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Social media can spot civil disturbances much faster than the police.**](https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/794352-detecting-riots-with-twitter) By _Cardiff University_ **2\.** [**If you have trouble getting rid of your old stuff, taking a photo may help you let it go.**](http://news.psu.edu/story/472328/2017/06/26/research/taking-pictures-sentimental-goods-may-help-people-declutter-donate) By _Penn State University_ **3\.** [**Imagine a fresh herb and vegetable farm right in your grocery store.**](https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/26/infarm/) By Steve O’Hear in _TechCrunch_ **4\.** [**Is the era of the American public intellectual over?**](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-happened-americas-public-intellectuals-180963668/) By Elizabeth Mitchell in _Smithsonian_ **5\.** [**Secular and religious politics can align — even in the U.S. Senate.**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWfJ9qO3A10) By Sen. Chris Coons at the _Aspen Ideas Festival_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4834625/social-media-can-spot-civil-disturbances-faster-than-the-police/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4834625/social-media-can-spot-civil-disturbances-faster-than-the-police/"},"headline":"Social Media Can Spot Civil Disturbances Faster than the Police","datePublished":"2017-06-27T16:00:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:43.552Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4834625/social-media-can-spot-civil-disturbances-faster-than-the-police/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Social Media","Senate","Innovation","grocery stores","Cleaning"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4834625/social-media-can-spot-civil-disturbances-faster-than-the-police/","name":"Social Media Can Spot Civil Disturbances Faster than the Police"}}]}] ```