Twitter has launched a new feature that sends alerts to people's twitter accounts concerning emergencies. These will only be tweets about urgent, life threatening emergencies such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. The feature is only offered to the UK right now, and is only sent to those who have signed up for the feature. Twitter decided to create this program after the 2011 tsunami in Japan when people used twitter to find out information on the disaster that had occurred. Here is an example of an emergency tweet.
These tweets will contain an orange bell at the end of the tweet to make it stand out from the rest. With over 232 million monthly users, Twitter has found a way to do their part in keeping the public informed of disastrous situations.
- Do you think this is a good idea to use Twitter as the source for emergency alerts?
- Do you think the U.S. should adopt this feature?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24986263
I think this feature could possibly be very beneficial. People rely on Twitter so much these days, so I think it makes sense to have an emergency feature. I think it would be helpful for people to hear about an impending threat so that they could be aware of what is going on.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great feature. It keeps people informed about disasters in the area. This way they are able to react in the best way possible, and potentially avoid getting caught in a bad situation. I think the U.S. should adopt this feature. It would have come in handy with many of the disasters that we have had recently.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think this is another great addition to Twitter. With millions of people actively using Twitter, it will be a way to get the message alerting the emergency out quickly and to a large audience. I also think the U.S. should work to adopt this feature. This would be very useful for the various of disasters that occur each year.
ReplyDeleteI also thinks it's a great idea for twitter. It is very helpful and allows people to receive information regarding the incident immediately. The U.S. should definitely look into this new app.
ReplyDeleteI think its a great idea to post emergency alerts on twitter. So many people use twitter and its a great way to reach a large amount of people quickly. Honestly, its kind of creepy that so many people around the world can see the same post at the same exact time. None the less that is a great idea. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea especially when it comes to emergencies. With the rise of twitter users each year in the US, I believe that they should most definitely adopt this feature.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great feature because everyone has their phones all the time but not everyone can pay attention to weather sirens or other traditional warnings. However, what are we going to do when our battery dies? Does a storm only last one battery life? Or should we keep with traditional warnings and know and understand what each means?
ReplyDelete