The social media posts are compelling but wrong
If you get lost during a hike and your phone battery is dying or you can’t get service, you should update your voicemail with your location, the time, and an explanation of your situation: So says a viral post about wilderness safety has been making its way through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok this week.
“The best part of this is that even if your cell phone dies or stops working, voicemail still works, so anyone calling your phone looking for you will hear the message and know where to find you or where to send help,” the post says.
This seems like a convenient solution, but according to search and rescue officials, this is reckless and not that helpful. Halifax Search and Rescue wrote on Facebook: “To be blunt. Wasting time changing your voicemail could be the last thing you do. If you don’t call for help, and you didn’t leave a trip plan, NOBODY IS COMING TO GET YOU.”
You shouldn’t be wasting more phone battery trying to keep your friends and family updated. (You should, however, pick up if you get a call from an unknown number—it could be emergency services trying to locate you.) Instead, you should spend it contacting search and rescue teams. Even if you don’t have a cell signal, you might have enough reception on another network to call 911. (By federal law, all providers must carry emergency calls.) Most phones won’t let you change your voicemail if you don’t have service anyway.
This post also advises that you update your voicemail with which direction or town you are heading toward. That makes it even less likely that teams will find you, as locating a moving target is more difficult than locating a still one.
“It is really hard to reset your voicemail without good service,” Mikki Lee Hastings, the president of the National Association for Search and Rescue wrote on Facebook in response to this viral post. “I am all about people doing everything possible to help us find you. Search is hard.”
In general, trust the experts. Sometimes viral information is just bad, and sometimes it’s downright dangerous. Using the phone battery you have left to contact the correct authorities is a much more proactive way to get to safety sooner.
“We all love the wilderness; that’s why we’re in Search and Rescue,” Halifax Search and Rescue commented on its Facebook post. “We want you to explore all that it has to offer, just do it safely.”
If you change your phone voicemail, you are depending on someone else to call you first, then stay on the phone long enough to hear your voicemail. (You’re also making a big assumption that anyone will call you in the first place: This method might not work if your friends are millennials or younger.) If you find yourself stranded with a dwindling phone battery, do this instead.
Lost in the Wilderness? Don't Change Your Voicemail.
A post making its way through several social media channels has misleading advice, according to SAR officials.
www.backpacker.com
Lost in the Wilderness? Don’t Change Your Voicemail.
A post making its way through several social media channels has misleading advice, according to SAR officials.
Emma VeidtOctober 26, 2021If you get lost during a hike and your phone battery is dying or you can’t get service, you should update your voicemail with your location, the time, and an explanation of your situation: So says a viral post about wilderness safety has been making its way through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok this week.
“The best part of this is that even if your cell phone dies or stops working, voicemail still works, so anyone calling your phone looking for you will hear the message and know where to find you or where to send help,” the post says.
This seems like a convenient solution, but according to search and rescue officials, this is reckless and not that helpful. Halifax Search and Rescue wrote on Facebook: “To be blunt. Wasting time changing your voicemail could be the last thing you do. If you don’t call for help, and you didn’t leave a trip plan, NOBODY IS COMING TO GET YOU.”
You shouldn’t be wasting more phone battery trying to keep your friends and family updated. (You should, however, pick up if you get a call from an unknown number—it could be emergency services trying to locate you.) Instead, you should spend it contacting search and rescue teams. Even if you don’t have a cell signal, you might have enough reception on another network to call 911. (By federal law, all providers must carry emergency calls.) Most phones won’t let you change your voicemail if you don’t have service anyway.
This post also advises that you update your voicemail with which direction or town you are heading toward. That makes it even less likely that teams will find you, as locating a moving target is more difficult than locating a still one.
“It is really hard to reset your voicemail without good service,” Mikki Lee Hastings, the president of the National Association for Search and Rescue wrote on Facebook in response to this viral post. “I am all about people doing everything possible to help us find you. Search is hard.”
In general, trust the experts. Sometimes viral information is just bad, and sometimes it’s downright dangerous. Using the phone battery you have left to contact the correct authorities is a much more proactive way to get to safety sooner.
“We all love the wilderness; that’s why we’re in Search and Rescue,” Halifax Search and Rescue commented on its Facebook post. “We want you to explore all that it has to offer, just do it safely.”
If you change your phone voicemail, you are depending on someone else to call you first, then stay on the phone long enough to hear your voicemail. (You’re also making a big assumption that anyone will call you in the first place: This method might not work if your friends are millennials or younger.) If you find yourself stranded with a dwindling phone battery, do this instead.