Facebook Proves Useful in Emergency Situations
Around the time that Facebook unveiled their iPhone mobile site, Josh Lowensohn at WebWare praised the iPhone-optimized version of Facebook for doubling as a massive phonebook on the go. He was absolutely correct. You have many friends on Facebook that list their phone numbers, which can come in handy whether you’re looking for Anna’s number on the go or Jim’s number while at home on your computer. Naturally, Facebook’s use as a phonebook lends itself to be used in a variety of situations. Case in point, my Friday night.
It started out as just another night in the intense life of socialite Stammy (sheer sarcasm). It was 1am and an entourage of 30 people were congregating at a friend’s condo about to head to a club down the street. This was in Midtown Atlanta, an area known for being generally upscale and posh. We all trekked out to the club on foot but my roommate Dan had to stop by his car to drop off his SLR camera that he dared not bring to a club. Dan parked on a residential street right behind the highrise condo building. After putting the camera in his car and beginning to walk to the club, two built guys took Dan by surprise and beat him to the ground, taking his phone, wallet and keys.
After recovering, he went to the condo’s concierge to call the police. But now he had to get a hold of me and the others. The building had a public computer so Dan was able to login to Facebook and find my phone number along with the numbers of a few friends in case I didn’t pick up. Fast-forward 15 minutes later, Chris (other roommate) and I were with Dan, helping him call a tow truck to tow his car back home, cancel his credit cards and phone.
Inside Dan’s car, getting towed back home.
I wouldn’t have thought that a social network could ever help anyone in a real world situation but it certainly did. This is something people didn’t think about when Facebook first rolled out Feeds and privacy issues suddenly became a concern. You might want to keep your phone number listed on Facebook, even if only for friends, because you never know.
How would you have gotten a hold of your friends if you didn’t have Facebook? Do you know of any other services that could help in any emergency situation?
I just signed up for Facebook.
Is Dan alright? Have the muggers been caught?
Damn, that sucks. Sorry about your friend. I hope they catch the dirtbags who did that to him and that they’re prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Wow - that sucks.
Holy crap. This is disturbing considering there are much more dangerous spots than effing Midtown. I’m glad your friend was alright though. Scary stuff. FB to the rescue.
Hope Dan is okay and gets through all of this. Had my phone stolen once and it doesn’t feel good. All those contacts … all gone!! :(
Anyway, I never thought about using Facebook in emergencies. It would be the only way I know of getting a hold of most of my friends. I’m going to go ahead and add my real number, instead of the fake 969-6969. Just remember to tweak the privacy settings so that only friends you have added can see the number.
@Tim - yeah, Dan is alright and nope, they’re still out there. They tried to use his card the next day at a fast food place, but it had been canceled.
That’s pretty cool. Not that your friend got beat down but how Facebook helped out.
Personally, I immediately thought ‘twitter’ A quick text to all your friends that says ‘hey, i just got mugged, I’m at __, and their # is …’ might have been helpful, I mean, that is if your friends have souls beyond being directly asked over the phone, of course, it might have been a little more embarrassing going out to everybody, but seriously, who can help being mugged?
Hey Paul, tried submitting to Digg since this is something people should read but the URL is blocked, but where there’s a will there’s a way. If this makes it to digg, you are welcome :)
http://digg.com/tech_news/Facebook_Proves_Useful_in_Emergency_Situations
Now digg it!
Hmm, there seems to be an error for some. Ah well, I tried!
@Evan - it was moderated b/c it had a link in it. just approved it.
BTW, that link on the digg page doesn’t work:
Paul, great story, happily he wasn’t too harmed from it.
The guy on the digg article submitted it using “hugeurl”, which is banned for obvious reasons.
Hm, I don’t think I would be calling friends in that situation and I know all the other numbers by heart (home, mom, dad, bro, g/f, etc.)
Of course, it kinda makes sense b/c you guys were the closest (and live together).
Sux though :/, but at least he’s ok. Main thing.
Sucks to hear the bad news, but glad you friend Dan was a MacGuyver. I’m not to crazy about Facebook (e.g. application spam), but I’m glad there are real-world uses to such a popular network (i.e. rolodex).
Bad news, good story. I wouldn’t lament too much about your exciting social life, however. At 35, I realized the other day that it was 9:00 on a Friday night and I was ready to go to bed.
Sorry to hear about your friend. Hope all turns out for the best.
As for getting ahold of friends, I do it the old-fashioned way… I’ve got the numbers memorized… Most of my friends are older than speed dial…
Facebook needs a 911 app
Well. you can fall in depression and one thing you can do to bring up is listening your favourite playlist from your last.fm account, that’s only in case of emergency!
I didn’t know that facebook can be such a useful site. Yet, I do not like stating all my private information on the internet. I am a bit paranoid.
Good that he did it anyways. Hope your friend is getting over that. I would have been scared so much. You will find them, hopefully!
Yikes. Glad your friend is ok.
Yeah, I’ve never had a situation quite like that. The only thing that comes to mind, and isn’t the least bit serious, is this one time recently when there was a huge sale on flash drives at my local future shop. I knew by the time I could get there they would all be sold, so I quickly went to facebook and found an old friend’s current cell number - because I knew he worked at FS. I called and he put the last one on hold for me. Woot.
When you asked about other social networking devices being put to good use in an emergency, the most obvious answer is Twitter like Isaac already said.
Plaxo
Wow, poor guy :( At least he’s OK.
I use a BlackBerry integrated with my work Exchange Server and all my contacts are in there, in constant synch. I can login to Outlook Web Access and see all my contacts.
.Mac Addressbook sync… easy access to all my contacts anywhere.
If I’m near a Mac, I can even sync them to my phone or iPod if I have it with me.
How would you have gotten a hold of your friends if you didn’t have Facebook? Do you know of any other services that could help in any emergency situation?
I would simply have used my very own internal computer “Brain” to remember the phone numbers of my friends it really isnt that hard.
“The building had a public computer”? Unfortunatley not many building here in the uk have pubic computers so i could’t have used that technique.
The best bet is goto a pay phone or a nearby house and call the police, then call your friends, much faster i would think.
I hope Dan was fine and they caught the f***ers that robbed him :(
@Lincoln - while that may seem like the obvious solution, to remember the number, most people I know just put the number in their phone and just call by name. I don’t even know the first 5 digits of my 4 year roommate’s number.