Recently, a family was out for a hike and got lost on the trail. Though lost, they were able to establish a cell connection and contacted 911.

One of the party members was also able to link up on Facebook.
"Stranded" in the wilderness was essentially the message sent out.

From my perspective, social networking can lead to serious unintended consequences and should be avoided in such a stituation.

Blake
www.outdoorquest.biz

Please explain, thanks.

If I'm ever stranded and down to my last leg, then I understand there would be unintended consequences for every move I make, but I'm going to try to contact somebody by any means necessary.

Yeah, it's just another tool.

I use twitter a lot and use the feature where I can texts on my phone of tweets from accounts. If something happens in downtown Portland where my fiancee works and a tweet goes out from any one of Publicalerts or Portland OEM or others, I know about it right away even if I'm away from the pc.

Thanks for the input. You've covered some capablities that I have not considered.

My concern is that should you be lost, and you are communicating on facebook, there is the chance that friends and family could get really spun up. If a search is in progress then the last thing the searchers need are lots of phone calls asking for info.


If you can contact Facebook then one should call 911 first.

Though I have a Facebook account I am not on twitter hence my knowledge base is somewhat limited.

Thats why I am asking.

Thanks guys.

Blake
www.outdoorquest.biz

Thank you for explaining. I thought you were taking a different angle entirely...

Facebook is not secure at all. Some people actually have about a thousand "close" friends on Facebook. Further, if one of your friends comments to your "help me" post on Facebook, then there will be many strangers (NOT on your friends list) who will be notified that you're desperately stranded. Conceivably, one of those strangers may be twisted, may go out searching and may not have the nicest of intentions.

Regardless, if I were desperately stranded, then I would try to contact both 911 and Facebook. There is a chance that communication with 911 may not be the best. Perhaps the phone call gets cut off midway, or your battery dies or whatever.

With the message to Facebook or similar, there just needs to be a quick burst of data to be sent on a half-ass connection. Those who really care will take the necessary steps to ensure your safety. Those who don't care won't do anything. Plus, you can update your Facebook comment later. If you're like me, then you don't have too many friends on Facebook anyway. In my case, I doubt the rescuers would be overloaded with phone calls.

I'm not currently setup to contact Facebook via my cell phone. However, because of this thread, I soon will be.

Text and data only take a fraction of a second to transmit where calling 911 you have to have a signal the whole time your talking. You can compose a text message, e-mail, facebook/twitter/etc post and walk around with the phone in your pocket and just happen to hit a signal for a fraction of a second and it will transmit the data so it could have a valid use.

Eugene hit the nail on the head. Oftentimes, texts & data will get through, whereas a call will not. And, calling 911 from a cell phone, they may have to reroute your call, several times. It can literally save your life, if needed (texting/posting, not the call).
That being said, its the responsibility of the person sending it, to communicate their problem correctly. You cannot gauge the response you will get-you may get an overwhelming response, or none at all. And, as for someone stalking you, or intending you harm; IMHO, I think that ANY friend request you accept, would be somehow vetted. I know about 90% of the people on my facebook account personally-the remaining ones are people I share common interests with (mainly bagpipers). I know that people friend-farm their accounts-I never saw a need for that. I DO use it as a communication tool quite often, and could certainly see using it in dire situations. Ultimately though, the poster is responsible for any & all consequences, good OR bad, as the result of it.
Remember-if they are sending search teams out, these people are being pulled from OTHER jobs, and often do that voluntarily. They are putting themselves at risk, looking for you. Being an ex-member of the SAR community, I think a lot of people who get lost, seem to forget this. I was a big proponent of fining people for carelessness-which happens all too often.

I witnessed a hit and run in the city and called 911 and was transferred around 4 times before they figured out whose jurisdiction it was, each time the line quality got worse to where we could hardly understand each other.
Was working for the PD in a smaller town, walked down the street a couple blocks for lunch and was walking back and just about to go in the door when I heard a crash behind me as two cars collided. I pulled open the door and ran inside and told them there was an accident and the officer behind the counter shrugged his shoulders and said the street in front wasn't their jurisdiction so they couldn't help.
So even being in the city you may not get immediate help when calling 911, out in the country its even worse.
Thats when I started prepping.

You should have told him he was speeding. Usually thats the only thing I see cops responding to.

EXACTLY! This is the single most important thing to understand - a text message - a short blast of data with multiple retries - will get through when there's not enough signal to establish a voice call. One message to 200 facebook friends might be all you get, and that's sure beats 0 calls that actually make it to the 911 center.

Only a few 911 centers have any SMS (text message) capabilities, and even those are experimental only.