Juli-Anne Sarji '24
Did your phone suddenly start screeching or buzzing at 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday, October 4th, 2023? Well, this was a scheduled emergency alert planned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communication Commission, to test their Wireless Emergency Alerts and the Emergency Alert System.
The Emergency Alert System sent an alert to all radios and TVs, and the Wireless Emergency Alert System sent an alert to all cell phones nationwide. The purpose of this test was to ensure that all devices nationwide are able to receive warnings about national emergencies. Communication and knowing about national emergencies are essential for all people.
Starting at 2:20 pm for the majority of people and two minutes earlier for others, the emergency alert was sent on all devices, stating, “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
When people received this alert, they went back to whatever work they were doing since it was just a test. The only reason someone may not have received the alert was because their phone was in airplane mode, they were not in range of a cell tower, or their wireless network provider does not participate in Wireless Emergency Alerts.
Kayla Sutherland ‘24, spoke about how the alert affected her so much that after it went off she wasn’t able to focus on her work, “I was startled because it went off two minutes early because all the news articles said it would go off at 2:20 pm, but my phone went off at 2:18 pm. It distracted me, and I couldn’t even remember what work I was doing before it went off.”
Although there are many benefits to the FEMA alert system, there have been many conspiracies about the true purpose of the alert going off on all devices. Some of the conspiracy theories and questions surrounding the emergency alert were: if you are able to opt out of getting the alert, how will it affect those in school, and if it will collect or steal all of your data or private information?
FEMA denounced the theory that it would collect your data when it told CNN News, “The test is also using broadcasting technology and does not collect any of your data." Regarding the effect of the test on schools, teachers were aware that it would be going off during their lessons and would continue with their lessons after the alert finished.
Anna Mancino ‘24, talked about how she was so scared when the alert went off and was aware of some of the conspiracy theories surrounding the alert, “When the alert went off, it scared me since I was not expecting to hear an alert from my phone. It makes me paranoid that supposedly they could have been tracking our data.”
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