September 13, 2024 1:43 AM Los Angeles, California
All the cell phones in my house suddenly blasted an emergency alert signal. OMG, is there an earthquake? An explosion? A terrorist attack? A wildfire bearing down on us? I raced to the nearest cell phone (no, I don't sleep with my cell phone), my heart beating rapidly and my fear response at full throttle. It must be something critical as a government issued Emergency Alert in the middle of the night, waking millions of people in the area, had to be something dire and dangerous.
It was an Amber Alert. A child abduction alert. A 3-month old child was reportedly abducted, somewhere in L.A. County (which is very large at 400 square miles). A child was abducted? In the middle of the night? Possibly by a relative. Nowhere near where I live.
The Amber Alert was quickly canceled and disappeared from the phones. No reason for the cancellation was given. Was it a false alarm? Was the the child found? The possible abductor captured? We have no idea.
A bigger questions is WHY were millions of people awakened by a loud "phone siren", an Emergency Alert, or in this case an Amber Alert, in the dead of night, for something that had ABSOLUTELY NO POTENTIALLY NEGATIVE EFFECT ON THEIR LIVES???
The government waking millions of people up suddenly, in the middle of the night? With a NON-life threatening phone siren, a NON-Emergency Alert, a loud cell phone alert to those receiving it, that does not effect THEIR lives? In the middle of the night? Could that be dangerous? Could that be especially dangerous to older people, and people with existing heart conditions?
I looked up Government Alerts in Google. Apparently, government alerts, including Amber Alerts and Public Safety Alerts are set to "on" by default on smartphones. Yes, it appears that you can opt out of receiving Amber Alerts on your smartphone. I didn't know that. And tonight it's too late as I am now wide awake from this Amber Alert.
And, an hour later, as my heart rate and fear response has hopefully returned to "normal", at 3 AM, I still cannot go back to sleep.