So yesterday evening, my social media page went crazy. But it wasn’t over the baseball playoffs or the Brett Kavanaugh scandal. Because this was more like: Did you get that presidential alert yesterday?
At around 2:13 EST yesterday, a ‘Presidential Alert’ went out to millions of smartphones across the USA. The agency FEMA did the test. Also, keep in mind this was just a test. It’s part of the WEA (Wireless Emergency Alerts) system. The WEA is a system that goes to all wireless devices, kind of like the EAS does with radio and TV. Why do they do this? They say it’s in case of an emergency, like natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and even nuclear war.
But this isn’t the first time time alerts went out on cell phones. Because as early as 2006, George W. Bush’s administration came out with WEA system. The goal was to alert people on their cellphones (we didn’t have smartphones until late 2007) on a local level. The alerts included things like weather watches/warnings, and Amber alerts for missing children. But this is different. This time, the White House sent alerts to smartphones all across America. Even our clients in our computer repair shops caught that. In fact, people from here to my Facebook post say, “How did they get my number?”.
So for those who ask that, let’s not forget. It’s not 1987 anymore. It’s 2018. Our IT support and computer information are so intertwined. If they want to alert you, find you, or call you, then they can and will. This isn’t conspiracy theory. This is truth. Some people didn’t get the alert. For instance, I didn’t get the alert. Then again, I have a prepaid phone. So maybe that had something to do with it. But the majority of the people I talked with aren’t happy with this alert. Many say it seems more like an intrusion than a safety practice. Did you get that presidential alert yesterday?