Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Name — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:03:54 -0000

that really is sad that in a day and age where people are fortunate enough to have cell phones with them so they can call for help (just a decade or so ago that wasn't the case) they instead decide to update their facebook pages.... absurd! i mean i'm glad they're ok but it would have been horrible if they weren't and all because they used their cellphones to update fb instead of calling for help. it could be that, as this article states, they may not have felt it to be an emergency and may not have felt like they were really in much danger, but even so...even if they hadn't called 911 or 000 that they may have at least phoned a friend or family member for help. i think even more concerning is the person tweeting for paramedics for a situation that was clearly an emergency rather than calling 911

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Annoyed by idiocracy — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:28:51 -0000

What the hell is wrong with society? Suppose you're ever so helpful twitter and facebook goes down (which has happened many times before). You'd be the idiot found dead and your message/status update never went through. Come on people i know you have some sort of intelligence! I'd hate to see what you'd do if those sites actually crashed one day. Idiots all over the world trumph texting in hopes of a friend being online rather than calling 911.....lol its so ridiculous its funny. I feel sorry for you. Hope you never actually get kidnapped. My thoughts to your family.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Tracy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:20:26 -0000

I agree with Linda. Just because its a public agency, doesn't make 911 the best choice in every case. If the girls were already on FB when they got scared (or stuck, whatever), I can understand why their first contact would be with people they KNOW, who would take them seriously and could call 911. My cell phone batteries are constantly near the drop-dead-point and theirs were likely similar if they were on FB all night during their adventure-who knows.
I have called 911 about a dozen times, usually about traffic accidents and the like, and had them take so long to answer that I gave up on them. That could make the difference between living and dying if you phone loses a battery. Texting to FB would be almost immediate and lots of people could see it, instead of one or two overworked 911 operators. I assume the reason they did not answer at 911 is that they were already swamped, possibly with other people calling who had seen the same emergency (I hope). So just from reading a news article (which did not explain the girls' situation very well) we do not know if they are "stupid" or not. I guess some people are just quick to judge. Whatever. They make the beds they sleep in.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Jimmy Gilmore — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:43:41 -0000

Tonight I'm going to show my 2 and 3 year old girls how to dial 911.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

James — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:18:55 -0000

Why couldn't the councilman have done both? Tweet first; then call. If his statement is true about concern for the battery dying, the tweet would have served as backup, not the most reliable call for help.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

David — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:27:53 -0000

Brad, sorry to hear about the state of your phone services. There are a lot of facts that are fuzzy, I have heard that the girls were trapped for several hours after posting on Facebook. If the case was that the girls called Emergency Services first then they were doing the right thing to pursue other avenues but I think there are social issues at work that others have alluded to, namely they didn't want to get in trouble. Kids are a reflection of culture at it's most primitive and they also showed very little common sense, Emergency services are best equipped and should be the first point of contact. The SMS to these services is a great alternate channel and should be developed.

Other comments on battery life etc don't hold water because launching a browser on the phone and connecting to the internet take far more power than a phone call and are separate to the SMS channels.

It's important to reinforce that social media is just another thing that absorbs kids attention and they should STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER/PHONE. Every family needs to talk to their kids about emergencies including putting an ICE contact at the top of their mobile in case they are found unconscious.

To Linsey and other trumpeters of Facebook it is important that all communication tools have their strengths and weaknesses and getting help fast ISN'T a strength of Facebooks. Plain and simple, kids need to still have safety talks and parents need to limit social media to other brain enhancing things like reading, writing and making things. (Please don't respond with how great the writing is online)

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Ashish Kalmegh — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:23:22 -0000

that girl must be on drugs ...

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Kallee — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:52:47 -0000

Better than them doing nothing. Back in the day they'd have to use their voices to call and maybe noone would hear them. Ever think of that?

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

smitty33 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:00:40 -0000

I think the very clear message here is "Emergency services should accept texts".

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Brad — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:32:09 -0000

They actually had enough battery and enough credit. I live in Sydney, and hearing this was a very sad thing indeed. I don't know if you guys realise, it's not just about getting contact, it's about getting the RIGHT contact. 000 is the number we are meant to RING. We have had numerous cases of failures even when someone does ring 000 directly let alone going about it in this manner. A kid died bushwalking because of the failure of our emergency number service. Seriously, he starved to death whilst trying to contact 000. He died 30 minutes after his last call. I know everyone out there in the world thinks "dumb Australians", but we have an extremely deficient phone emergency service. We only just went to a centralised dialing system with mobile phones (previously, each mobile phone carrier had their OWN emergency number). I think it is only in the last four years we centralised it to the 000 service. With the bad press our emergency phone service has received nationally, I can understand why they sent it to their facebook. It's not the girls, blame our emergency phone service for being virtually useless.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

beani — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:00:17 -0000

I know they didnt say that the phones were dying but if they were I know that I can text for almost an hour on a dying phone but the second I try to place a call the battery is gone. So if in that situation and with a dying phone I may have done the same thing. Like someone said you can text your status to facebook, you dont have to access the site, and at the same time you are taking more of a risk hoping the one person you text gets your message and calls for help, then you are putting it on the web for your, however many friends to see. But at the same time I know atleast here in canada you can do text to landlines, where a computerized voice reads your text out to whoever answers the phone. If the situation were a life or death, I would text every number in my phone, update my facebook and twitter. Remember they are young girls the fact that they did anything in the first place is a good sign lol :)

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Maya — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:30:33 -0000

This is... disappointing. Someone needs to knock some sense into this girl.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Rebekah — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:25:44 -0000

you can update your status via text message, so accessing facebook is not an issue

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Rebekah — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:24:13 -0000

You don't have to be in high school to get on facebook anymore.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

elllo ello mates — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:50:46 -0000

How many prepaid phones can access facebook? Not too many. Why is everyone talking about their batteries being dead?? I never even heard that either of their batteries were dead. Why would they both be dead? Cell phone companies should install emergency batteries in the phones that work only when calling 911/999/000 etc. . Lol, though, sometimes cell phones act strange when calling 911, my phone had a full charge and it died.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Name — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:23:51 -0000

to be fair, they might not have had phone reception underground. a txt will try over and over again to send itself.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

FacebookUser — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:47:45 -0000

Many people might actually think it's a joke if you say that kind of thing on your facebook or tweeter, and I agree with "Name" (next time put an actual name :P), most cell phones now adays have GPS built in them, so the police can eaily track down your phone in a matter of seconds if you do call for help and your phone dies... Don't worry people, 911 operators really arent stupid, and yea, going on the web takes more battery power then text or a call, since you gotta wait for the page to even load, takes longer then text, therefor, it uses more battey. Well, In my opinion, Facebook and Tweeter aint the best place to post a help message since now adays most teens like to mess around, so a 12 year-old girl posting that she needs help, I would personally try to contact anyone in that case, but other people might think its a joke... Well, im done -_- Peace all

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Venkatesh — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:06:39 -0000

Gary - i like the bit " I just died". True. I think calling 911 would be the best way to go ahead. I think updating status or tweeting is just to create some hype.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Name — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:22:34 -0000

Uh yeah, teach them new technology is good and all, but this is clearly beyond that. it's one thing to use technology to help oneself, it's another thing to be completely reliant on it. To me, a highschool student, it's mind bloggling to think that people a few years younger than me are so brain dead that they can't even remember to call 911, or the equivalent. The basic skills of calling emergency numbers should be common knowledge, to not know it is just a sign of decay in our society. Do I care? Not really. In this growing world, the idiots gets weeded out, and it just creates more opportunities for me if the rest of the population is getting dumber.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

vlada1 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:52:49 -0000

but wath could hapend if no one take it seriously??? im sure that my ffriend wouldnt

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Name — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:38:08 -0000

what you smoking and where can i get some? while you were taking the time to login and update you could've easly texted the first in your contacts for help. what sense does that make. people are easily relying a little too much on myspace, twitter and other websites. i mean i love twitter and myspace and all but i would texted fo help the fist chance i got.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Name — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:34:56 -0000

wtf dumbass girls

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Michael Bennett Cohn — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:50:57 -0000

Posting to FB gets a message to a lot more people, and a lot faster, than a single phone call.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

LOB — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:31:29 -0000

Wow this just shows how common sense is going out the window.

Re: Trapped Girls Updated Facebook Status Instead of Calling For Help

Martin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:31:08 -0000

what... the... hell...
at ANY age if your STUCK in a stormdrain you would call 911/000 whoot ever it is and be like "help me damn it!". how ever this is a question into the current youth of today! i mean i am 18 and i use facebook and im gonna be honest and say i log into it everyday. But if im STUCK somewhere i am not going to update my status and say "oh dear, im in a stormdrain, halp? plz,K,Thx,Bai." im more incline to hit up the emergency services and ask them for help.

i think its due to the fact everyone is growing up in a social media society, and people need to teach there kids that facebook dosn't come first when you are in danger/stuck/being stupid.