With the development of social media, people have the opportunity to quickly alert others to potentially dangerous situations, but it can be difficult to tell when these warnings are real, and the spread of false ones makes the real warnings less impactful. 

 

It is only natural to want to caution loved ones after seeing a warning about a certain product, area or suspicious person, but as these alerts are becoming more common, they appear to be losing their effectiveness. A growing number are spreading false information, with deterrents for products often being disproved with some online research. Alerts regarding danger in specific areas often seem pointless to those who live near or have to commute through there as they cannot avoid the region. 

 

Teenager Grace Costley says, “My parents send me so many of these that I mainly ignore them now. I find them annoying.”

 

However, these warnings can help to keep people informed about potential risks, for example making them more aware of their surroundings, which is what cautions were designed to do. As people are now being inundated with these alerts though, they are beginning to lose their meaning, failing to keep people safe. Before forwarding cautions to others, stop and think for a moment. Is this information coming from a reputable source? Have any other credible sources reported on this? Would knowing this information actually prevent an unsafe situation? If the answer to all of these questions is yes, send the message. If not, take another minute to consider whether this warning will actually benefit the recipients. Let’s use our words wisely.