At some point today, across America....the Homeland Security folks will send out some mass 'test' message to every single cellphone....to demonstrate to the public that emergency info can be pushed out....if conditions require it.
Who is in charge of the test? FEMA.
There are three observations that I can make over this.
First, someone is going to copy the 'message', and turn it into a hoax-type thing, and resend it at various times to unsuspecting people, who will freak out over some fake nuclear incident....fake volcanic eruption....or some circus tiger being on the loose in your community.
Second, it's going to turn all political because people will suggest that Trump will send out fake 'messages' to alarm the public.
Third, even if you got a real 'message' in the future over some event unfolding (like aliens having landed and launching an invasion)....do you really want to take the government's advice on evaluation or how to handle your end of the situation?
Being from Alabama, I would suspect that forty-percent of the public in the state will discount the government advice right off the bat, and start making their own assumptions and solutions. Distrust? It's been proven over and over....the last people on earth that you want advice from in a contingency....is the US federal government.
A month or two down the line, I expect dozens of people each day will get some fake alert from some guy....warning of a dam collapse, or lion spotted in the local area, and this will become a big problem with people freaking out and getting hyped-up over nothing. Eventually, some idiot will fire off 10,000 messages to some folks in DC, notifying them of a nuke attack on Fairfax, and scaring thousands to evacuate to West Virginia in the middle of the night.
That's the problem about technology.....you just don't know where it's going to lead onto.
