React Mobile
has a new Follow Me feature for Smartphone users. You can send an S.O.S. signal to a
preselected group of friends, family, and authorities with a single touch in
the case of emergency, tracing your GPS location instantly. You can also send an alert to friends and
family if you are going somewhere and are concerned for your safety, but it
isn’t a definite that you will be in danger (i.e. going on a jog alone). These contacts can follow your real time GPS
and make sure you are headed home when you are supposed to be. When you get to your destination, you click
“I’M SAFE” and it lets your contacts know you are well. It also allows you to report emergencies and
criminal activity.
I am all for making safety convenient, but if you are a
regular reader, you’ll recall that I mentioned personal alarms and my
hesitation to promote them. On the one
hand, drawing attention to yourself lessens the likelihood of your attacker
sticking around and increases the likelihood of help arriving. On the other hand, you are still being
attacked. It doesn’t turn into a big
vicious dog with the push of the button.
It is still your primary responsibility to know how to protect
yourself. This is my fear with this
React Mobile app. Yes, this is an
amazing technology that has huge potential to protect and maybe even save
lives, but I want women to take their safety seriously and not rely on their
phones so much. In a real emergency
where a woman is actively being attacked, what are the odds that she will have
time to push this button? It requires a
level of prediction that is impossible.
If you know you are about to be attacked when you walk down the next
street, wouldn’t it be smarter to take another street? If you feel intuition poking you in the back
about a situation, get out of it!
Intuition is your built in personal app!
Another issue I have with the app is the
maybe-I’ll-be-in-danger part. If you are
going on a jog alone, send out a message to friends and family so they can
track your GPS. If you aren’t where you
should be, they’ll alert authorities.
Read the fine print here. If you
get kidnapped, they will be able to tell that you were taken from the location
you were supposed to be in, assuming they are watching their phone, and your
kidnapper hasn’t tossed it some place.
If you are attacked or you fall and are hurt, your friends and family
will only be able to tell you aren’t moving anymore. How can they tell the difference between you
fighting for your life and you taking a breather? There’s some assumed follow up with a phone
call or text, I guess. And if you make
an error and forget to let them know you are safe, you’ve freaked them out for
no reason. Forget more than once and the
app is useless. They’ll just assume you
forgot again if you go off grid.
So as near as I can figure, this is only really useful if
you are kidnapped and your kidnapper didn’t toss the phone. In this case, which is rare might I add, the
authorities will be able to find your phone.
They can’t protect you, however, until they get there. Again, this is still your
responsibility! If you don’t take it
seriously, then the app is just going to track down your body.
In the pictures advertising this app, the women are jogging
and wearing headphones, or walking alone at night. Awareness saves lives! If you could hear your attacker coming, you
stand a better chance of surviving.
Period. If you use the buddy
system instead of walking anywhere alone (or exercising by yourself),
especially at night, you are less likely to become a victim. Period.
This is really rough for me to draw a finite line on, but
I’ll give it a shot. If you are going to
be lazy about your safety, this is a great app to have. If you want to truly be safe, be smart about where
and when you travel, and with whom you do your traveling. Always be aware of your surroundings. And NEVER ignore your intuition.
Until next time, be safe.
Be smart.
No comments:
Post a Comment