Alert! Alert!

If you have a cell phone, odds are you got a "presidential alert" today. Apparently, some people didn't get the alert, and then some of us got two of them. For those who didn't get one, here are the two I got:

It was really rather... mundane. And no, I didn't think anything of it. I certainly didn't begin today thinking I was going to be writing something up on it, but here we are! 

But according to the internet, the world is ending!

There are a lot more out there to be found, but these are just a nice little sampling so you can see what's going on. 

OK, so what actually is this alert system? Well, it's a national emergency alert system. Similar to the emergency alerts you get on the TV and the radio, this is another way to reach more people. Let's face it, a lot of folks are actually getting rid of their TVs or going to subscription internet services, and fewer people than ever are listening to the radio. But we've all got phones in our pockets, it seems. 

​No, Trump isn't going to be sending out mass tweets or contacting you about random stuff. It is an emergency alert system. 

And you've probably already dealt with it on a state level. 

Hey, Hurricane Florence just ravaged my state. We got real familiar with those emergency alerts during the duration of that, from actual hurricane warning alerts to tornado alerts to flash flooding alerts, we were getting the noise constantly. It's real nice of them to go off in the middle of the night to let you know there's a tornado barreling towards your house while your family is asleep. If I travel out of state, I get the alerts from there, too. It isn't a new system... it's just a national system now on top of your state one. It would be useful for things like, oh, I don't know... 9/11. 

And those state alerts have been going on for years. Literally, years. I even get Amber Alerts this way.

All of a sudden, it's Trump "raping us through technology." Or it is setting off PTSD (I can actually see this, and I'm sorry to hear that, but again... it isn't just the national alerts, you are most likely getting state alerts, too). Or... it's a pre-cursor to martial law?!

That screen shot is actually from the #walkaway discussion group. So the irrational freak out isn't coming from just one side. 

​Folks. Calm the hell down. The world isn't ending. Trump isn't harassing you. The Russians aren't coming for your soul. We aren't going into martial law. It's just an alert system being put into place for national emergencies so we can alert people to imminent threats. Things like North Korea lobbing missiles at us or a large terrorist attack or mass rioting. You'll be OK, I promise.