SCARY BIG BROTHER USE OF CELL PHONE! TEXT: THIS IS THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM!

I was with a friend at a library the other day and as you know most libraries require that you do not answer or make calls in the library. 

It's distracting to other people and a Library Rule that I wish the librarians would enforce at all times, meaning that I notice there are some people they seem to be afraid to approach who take and make calls loudly all the time and others who try to comply (me) who seem to be held to a higher standard.

That said, there is no such thing as Silence in Libraries any more.  I no longer expect it. Overall, the world has become a noisier place, although much of the wordly noise is drowned out by self selected noise transmitted to the ear through earphones.

My friend had her Smart Phone, an android, in Silence mode and on.  As we browsed the shelves for movies, we thought we heard, but she did not feel, a vibratory sound. 

We asked a man also browsing if maybe his phone was ringing.  He said, no he didn't even have a phone.

A little later my friend took her Smart Phone out and on the screen appeared a exclaimation mark on a red background.  This was an alert.  She looked and of all things, it said....

"THIS IS A TEST OF THE

EMERGENCY CELL PHONE SYSTEM!"

(i.e. I think linked to the EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM YOU SEE ON TV or HEAR ON RADIO.)

So, now the government or the radio or television stations or the cell phone provider, some organization, is able to send these emergency alerts to people's cell phones even when they are in silence mode.  They buzz on through the options you selected!

I have more questions.  What if the phone was off?  What if there was a real emergency (nuclear warhead or tornado headed our way, or maybe a meteor like the one that whooshed over Russia recently about to hit the roof of the library or The End Times, which I find fascinating but don't believe in) and we didn't answer the phone?

Will her phone be buzzing and alerting every time there is an earthquake; earthquakes happen all over the world all the time, most harmless. 

Can the 911 people call us and say that our very own house is on fire?

As is, when we go to the library the phone wants to automatically use WIFI (the Internet) to make and take calls instead of what was paid for - the cell phone network.

Take my advice.  What this world needs is more restaurants with heavily curtained and sound proofed table alcoves for conversations, not more privacy invasion and human tracking via phones.

C 2013 Christine Trzyna  All Rights Reserved Including Internet and International Rights