"Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!"
Crying "Wolf" is the problem I have with last night's Amber Alert that broadcast on cellphones throughout California a BOLO about a missing child from Boulevard, California. Which CHP genius decided to make the alert statewide when the incident occurred near the Mexican border AND, according to reports I read, the authorities thought the suspect was headed to Mexico or Texas?
If pitting the inconvenience of getting awakened from sleep against the life of a kidnapped child seems like a fair appraisal of the situation to you, I won't argue. I think it's a queasy comparison, but I understand that you'd have to find someone who got into an accident last night — or today because they are sleep deprived — before we'd be even on the life vs. inconvenience scale.
My objection to last night's alert comes from worryinig that a lot of people switched off their phones' Amber Alerts today. Not because they don't care about kidnapped kids. Rather, because they think they shouldn't be put on alert for something 400 miles away and likely going further away. They think Amber Alerts are going to be another noisy bit of spam in their already full lives.
And, people who leave the Amber Alert on are not going to jump and read the next one if they think it, too, will be remote to them.
The overall discomfort over last night's California activation of the Amber Alert system isn't being articulated very well. People sound guilty about complaining because they are apparently objecting to a minor annoyance. They are not happy in the seeming self-focused position of judging 5 minutes of their sleep as more important than the lives of two children.
I don't feel guilty in objecting. It's not about my sleep, it's about the effectiveness of the Amber Alert program.
Whoever unleashed last night's mass alert lessened the impact of the Amber Alert system. They weakened future public reaction. They did something stupid.
Most cell phones here in our area seem to have an emergency broadcast for bad weather. This is VERY recent. Over the past month, Danny has had 4 blasting notifications on his cell phone. I’m not sure why *I* haven’t; I don’t think we had a choice in this, and we’re on the same service.
The big issue with the (very loud, persistent) phone blast was that his phone was downstairs and we were upstairs asleep. The notice turned his phone on and LEFT it on; it wasn’t plugged in. So in the morning, his battery was drained.
And like the Amber Alerts, it’s for ‘significant bad weather’ NOT for imminent death from a tornado or a flash flood in our neighborhood (highly unlikely events).
He’s pissed, I’m pretty sure.
Most cell phones here in our area seem to have an emergency broadcast for bad weather. This is VERY recent. Over the past month, Danny has had 4 blasting notifications on his cell phone. I’m not sure why *I* haven’t; I don’t think we had a choice in this, and we’re on the same service.
The big issue with the (very loud, persistent) phone blast was that his phone was downstairs and we were upstairs asleep. The notice turned his phone on and LEFT it on; it wasn’t plugged in. So in the morning, his battery was drained.
And like the Amber Alerts, it’s for ‘significant bad weather’ NOT for imminent death from a tornado or a flash flood in our neighborhood (highly unlikely events).
He’s pissed, I’m pretty sure.
Absolutely guilty as charged. As a result of this incident, I will henceforth make a point of turning off all Amber alerts on every device I own or acquire from this point forward.
In my case, having my cellphone screaming Amber alerts at me is overkill.
Leaving my suburban home each day for work, I must use a car, and already encounter Amber alerts visually since I can’t access any nearby freeway without encountering a Caltrans alert sign (which carries Amber alerts).
In addition, I encounter Amber alerts aurally since all three of the news/talk radio stations I listen to in my car regularly broadcast Amber alerts for at least 24 hours.
There is no way I can leave my home and miss a recent Amber alert.
I don’t need my cell phone screaming at me, too.
Absolutely guilty as charged. As a result of this incident, I will henceforth make a point of turning off all Amber alerts on every device I own or acquire from this point forward.
In my case, having my cellphone screaming Amber alerts at me is overkill.
Leaving my suburban home each day for work, I must use a car, and already encounter Amber alerts visually since I can’t access any nearby freeway without encountering a Caltrans alert sign (which carries Amber alerts).
In addition, I encounter Amber alerts aurally since all three of the news/talk radio stations I listen to in my car regularly broadcast Amber alerts for at least 24 hours.
There is no way I can leave my home and miss a recent Amber alert.
I don’t need my cell phone screaming at me, too.
Yep. Thanks to last night’s highly inappropriate AMBER Alert, I’ve turned them off on my iPhone.
Yep. Thanks to last night’s highly inappropriate AMBER Alert, I’ve turned them off on my iPhone.