←back to thread

Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say

(www.nytimes.com)
623 points franzb | 6 comments | 14 Nov 15 00:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.822s | source | bottom
Show context
leothekim ◴[14 Nov 15 00:44 UTC] No.10563638[source]▶
Facebook has enabled their safety check feature:

https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/paris_terror_attacks/

replies(1): >>10564010 #
eveningcoffee ◴[14 Nov 15 01:59 UTC] No.10564010[source]▶
What is this?
replies(1): >>10564020 #
jacquesm ◴[14 Nov 15 02:02 UTC] No.10564020[source]▶
A way to let others know you're safe even if you can't get through to them personally.
replies(1): >>10564095 #
Asbostos ◴[14 Nov 15 02:20 UTC] No.10564095[source]▶
Does that have any value beyond reinforcing people's irrational fear of mass deaths? What if you let your family know you're not one of the 100 killed in this attack then die as one of the 600 murdered in France each year by common crime?

I saw this happen with the London bombings. A colleague was almost in tears because her son lived in London and she couldn't contact him on the phone. It turned out he was fine, as approximately everybody else in the city was too.

replies(3): >>10564148 #>>10564202 #>>10564315 #
1. leothekim ◴[14 Nov 15 03:32 UTC] No.10564315[source]▶
You answered your question without even realizing it. It is always ok to care about your loved one, and it is always ok to reach back out to let them know you're ok, no matter the medium, no matter the circumstance. It is not irrational, it is human.

A college classmate on 9/11 died in the Windows of the World restaurant. Her death may be a statistic to you, but it is not to me.

I remember trying to call friends in NYC that day, all the exchanges were overloaded. I'm grateful that we now have ways to connect without worrying about possibly preventing emergency calls from going through.

replies(2): >>10564383 #>>10565133 #
2. plonh ◴[14 Nov 15 04:01 UTC] No.10564383[source]▶
But Facebook only activates Safety Check on special occasions.
replies(2): >>10564501 #>>10564502 #
3. davidgay ◴[14 Nov 15 04:47 UTC] No.10564501[source]▶
Which are extremely likely to be the same occasions where calls/emergency calls are not getting through.
4. shampine ◴[14 Nov 15 04:47 UTC] No.10564502[source]▶
It's still hands down the best feature of the entire product. I don't use Facebook for much, nor do I particularly care for it. But this is an amazing use of social graph and the internet. Whomever at FB came up with the concept, much respect.
5. Asbostos ◴[14 Nov 15 09:58 UTC] No.10565133[source]▶
Several of my friends, neighbors and family members have died. In none of those cases did I hear about it on the news and call to make sure it wasn't them. If I did that, I'd be doing it daily, because there are always car accidents, murders, suicides, organ failures and cancers in any city every day.

So what I mean is that for a small incident like this, it's usually not reasonable to check on your friends. If they worked in the WTC on 9/11 then their risk is higher so it certainly can be reasonable. Similarly for a tsunami or other disaster with a high death toll.

replies(1): >>10572298 #
6. chronolitus ◴[16 Nov 15 02:35 UTC] No.10572298[source]▶
Good that you can stay so rational under emotional stress.

I would say that in that respect you are probably an outlier, and urge you to remember that facebook is designed for the mean.