This article begins by citing the experience of a young woman named Sarah Maguire in losing her cellphone after a night of drinking. What happens is that she uses an iphone application called “find my iphone” to discover the location of her phone. She then goes alone to a house where the application indicated and confronted a man about the cellphone, eventually getting it back. What Sarah Maguire did may have seemed very brave but in my opinion was very foolish. In many cases of lost or stolen cellphones, civilian efforts to retrieve their phones do not always end up as easy and clean as Sarah Maguire’s case. In the article, it talks about how an off duty officer called upon three other off duty officers to go and retrieve his son’s stolen phone after using a smartphone gps locator to find it. He did this because he didn’t know what he might be walking into. The article also talks about cops warning people to call the police and to not act by themselves in such situations. After reading this article, I feel as though technology is causing people to not think clearly. What I mean by this is that especially in this case, people can locate their stolen phones but instead of thinking clearly and calling the cops, they decide to go in themselves. If a person gets their phone back by confronting the thief themselves. So my question is, does technology lower our common sense?
This is very interesting because I remember in the beginning of the book when Shirky started with the anecdote about the lost phone. I know that many people lose their phone but it is really hard to retrieve it. Because many people keep it for themselves or they sell it? One of my friends lost their phone and we were able to locate it with the find my phone app. The only problem with that is it gives you an address and not specifically where the phone is and although they called the cops the cops said there is nothing they can really do about. It would be unreasonable for them to knock on every door of the apartment complex. The new apps help us find our phone but in the end it depends on the person that found it. Like in the beginning of Shirky’s book, they located the phone but the girl was very hostile about returning it. But always try to retrieve it and always bring someone in case anything happens.
When I got my iPhone stolen out of my purse, I didn’t realize until about half an hour later. I immediately borrowed my friend’s iPhone to track my phone using the ‘Find My iPhone’ app. Luckily, the person who stole my phone didn’t turn my phone off and I tracked it right away. Unlike the Sarah Maguire in the article, I had the help of police officers to get my phone back since I was in a public space when I lost it.
Honestly, the one thing I cannot lose is my iPhone. I am quite paranoid that I back-up my phone everyday just in case I lose it. I guess the way one deals with the case is different for all situations.
I have never had my phone stolen before but I do have an app that can track where my phone is if it is stolen. It has an alarm that cannot be disabled unless the password is entered. I heard how loud and annoying it can be when I changed the sim card on my phone when I was studying abroad. I don’t think anyone will want to steal my phone after hearing the alarm. I think if someone was to retrieve their phone after tracking it down they should have someone go with them. The person who stole their phone probably would not be willing to give it up after all so they should contact the police to get the phone back.
I think losing our phones causes us to make unwise choices because we’re just so focused on trying to get the phone back as soon as possible. I don’t think we actually think of our own safety as a priority and we place our priority on the phone instead. I agree that it’s best for your personal safety to go with someone or call the cops to help you retrieve the phone than going alone. You really don’t know what situation you’re getting yourself into if you go alone. I think we care about getting our phones back so much just because in a way it’s like losing something absolutely valuable since most of our memories and information are stored on our phones. Honestly, I think if we backed up all our data somewhere we probably wouldn’t even be all that concerned about our phone going missing since we already backed up the data. If anything, it would just the cost to replace the phone that would probably affect us.
Our dependency on technology could lead to us ignoring our common senses (knowing that the technology can be replaced or alert the authority before searching for that tech). It’s not worth lowering our common sense but we make it look and sound like it is.
In this case I believe technology was solid and did what it suppose to. End of the day everything comes to the person who is using the technology. She could play it safe and could just go to the police. In her case, she decided to confront the thief. I do not certainly think technology lowers our common sense, but I do believe our dependence on technology has increased rapidly.
This is such a “to each his own” topic, and really it’s up to each person to decide how they wish to handle getting/retrieving a lost phone.
However in my opinion just because the technology exists to tell us where our lost/stolen item is, I don’t think anyone should rush in without thought. Telling us where an item is located does not tell us if it is safe or not. Also keep in mind the person(s) who steals a phone or other electronic device would not wish to willing give it up as that proves guilt just like the story in Shirky’s book. The bottom line is, I think the authorities should be involved to avoid any issues or potentially dangerous situations.