React Mobile's new Follow Me feature~priddymomma

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.

Awareness

I told you that I would take you along with me on my journey.  We're kicking it off with discussing ways to keep oneself safe.

Awareness is the second most important thing in the list of ways to keep yourself safe (most important item to be discussed in full next week).  Self defense starts way before a man pulls a knife on you.  It begins with what you notice and what you do not notice as you go about your day to day.  For example, the man walking with his eyes closed and hands over his ears is far more likely to walk in front of a car and become a victim than a man who is using the gifts God gave him:  ears and eyes.  Distractions can be costly.  The cost can be your life.

Over the past few years, there has been a constant stream of messages passing through the media about texting while driving.  Don't text and drive!  A text isn't worth your life!  While I agree with those messages, I think they aren't taking the message far enough.  From a self defense standpoint, the trouble isn't just texting.  The problem is cell phones.  I have nothing against cell phones.  They are convenient and a blessing to have in an emergency.  I have a problem with the apparent addiction to using one's phone.  Everywhere I go I see people on their phones.  They can't do their grocery shopping, drive to work, or even use the bathroom without constantly being tuned in to social media.  People in the same room feel like they have to text back and forth.  If they used even 1% of that awareness and applied it to their personal safety, I wonder how many attacks could be prevented.

If you are wandering out to your car after work and texting your boyfriend, are you going to notice the van parked next to your vehicle, even if it is the only other vehicle in the parking lot?  Probably not.  You probably won't, because just like the man walking around with his eyes and ears covered, you have neglected God's gifts to you by distracting yourself at a time when being vigilant is important.

Cell phones aren't the only cause of this, of course.  In the 80s, it was the Walkman.  Women were warned not to walk or jog alone with headphones.  Again, negligence of one of God's gifts (hearing) was causing women to become easy prey to predators in the parks and paths.  MP3 players still present an issue today.  A rough day at work or a breakup can also cause you to be more careless and distracted. 

What can you do to keep yourself safe?  Identify times when you need to be more vigilant and go out of your way to be more aware during those times.  If possible, finish your errands during daylight hours.  Don't sit in your parked car, doing things such as applying makeup or balancing your checkbook.  If you must walk or jog with music, consider only putting one earpiece in, or jogging with a partner.  The buddy system is never a bad idea when it comes to keeping oneself safe (think bars, nighttime errands, or exercise).  Don't be afraid to trust your gut.  If your intuition is screeching that something isn't right, but you can't locate the source, FOLLOW YOUR GUT!  Your subconscious mind likely picked up on cues that your conscious mind missed and identified the hazard faster than your logical mind could manage.  Making a choice against your gut under these circumstances could literally be life and death.

 I hope you find yourself seeing things a little more clearly.  Until next time, be safe and be aware.
Love,
Heather.