Atlanta Councilman, Kwanza Hal saw a woman in need of medical assistance. Of course, the first thing a sane man would do is to call 911, but no, that's not what the Atlanta Councilman did; he twittered.
For some reason, he did not call 911, but instead he pushed a message onto twitter about this accident. Of course, the woman was saved hours later. When asked why did he use twitter, he answered with that his cell phone battery was running low and he didn't want to waste the battery on a call to the police. Then he reasoned terribly that twitter uses less battery.
A typical cell phone battery can last several hours of constant talking and to tell the truth talking to the police to save someone's life is much more effective than using twitter.
Wow, we have really degraded ourselves because of our dependency upon technology
10 comments:
Well, I think that your post left out a couple of details.
The man twittered partly to increase the number of people calling the police in order to lessen the chance of getting put on hold. His message on twitter was clear and urgent. Moreover, it worked: several people, instead of just one, called the police reporting the emergency.
He did this because of a previous incident where being put on hold resulted in a home burning down. So our dependence on technology is bad. Not twitter, but phones?
One question, though: did he call the police after tweeting?
Sorry, or are we talking about the same incident?
punching in 9-1-1 is easier than about 20 letters.
survival of the "fittest"
Hmm. You have a point. I think he should have called 911 first. Then, if he was put on hold, use Twitter or some other medium to ask others to call the police as well.
Anyhow, at least the ending is happy: the woman made it to the hospital in time.
Twitter for social networking. 911 is to save people. It's very very hard to get the two confused. And it's also very very hard to be unable to call 911.
The guy was afraid of being put on hold. You can't exactly be put on hold by Twitter, and tweeting lets other people know to call as well, decreasing the chance that everyone gets put on hold and the police/paramedics end up not responding to this emergency at all.
That said, I would say that conventional methods should be tried first. Call 911 FIRST, then try other stuff.
I agree.
Call 911, talk to friends later.
Did you know that some police departments now except text messages for 911?
Again, in defense of the guy, he wasn't chatting with friends. If you were put on hold by the police, what would you do? Two things: first, keep calling; second, scream for someone down the street to call the police as well. This is essentially what the guy was doing.
And also, I think that accepting text messages for 911 is a very good idea. (I didn't know that; thanks for sharing that fact!) Suppose the police displayed all incoming text messages on a large screen. Then they could, in a glance, read many messages and get the key facts from them, efficiently and accurately.
Texting 911. I just know that there are going to be some difficulties.
P1: OMG, women hurt
911: calm down, everything is alright. please report where you are
P1: n. machester rd. 1234. cmon quik now
911: Sure, just restate the address again. We could not find a north machester rd.
P1: sry, it wuz North Manchester Rd.
911: Okay, please state the problem as we send a unit
P1: head's got blood. is bleeding.
911: is it severe?
P1: sure it got blood everywhere. bad man, my frend their is rotfl, what a disgrace.
911: okay... we'll arrive asap
But do realize that the same difficulties exist with good old phone calls as well. ;)
Like this?
OH MY GOD!!! THERE'S LIKE A MAN BLEEDING TO DEATH ON A SIDEWALK AND HE'S SCARRED FOR LIFE!!! GET HELP NOW!!!
Okay, just calm down, everything will be alrig-
NO!!! HE'S GONNA DIE!! @#$%!!1
Er. I know you're upse-
HUH? YOU THINK I'M UPSET? HUH? HUH? YOU QUESTIONING MY UPSETNESS?
J-Just tell me where you are.
I'M ON @#$% MANCHESTER AVENUE!!!! GOD @#$% IT!!!
YOU GUYS ARE @#$% SLOW @#$% AND HE'S GONNA @#$% DIE!!!
Okay, help will arive shor-
WELL GET THE FBA, FIRE DEPARTMENT, EPA, WATEVER! JUST SAVE THIS @#$%#@$ MAN!!!!!
Well, that's not exactly good either..
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