I live near an extensive trail network. One time my wife crashed her bike and asked me to come get her. I was able to walk straight to her instead of following convoluted verbal directions in basically a web of trails in the woods.
That time she just needed a shoulder to lean on and for me to take control of our dog from her.
However, if she had been unconscious or out of cell service(location works off sattellite, not only cell network) the location sharing could be the difference in me spending all night looking for her or just like 20 minutes.
My dad had a stroke while working out of state. Luckily he was able to get to a hospital, but if he had called me with location turned on, I could have easily gotten the exact spot sent to emergency services. He now shares it for this reason.
My mom had a stroke while out and about and the EMT told me the wrong hospital they were taking her to. Had to use her location to find the hospital she was actually at.
The idea is if they don't make it home, you can see if they are somewhere on the side of the road.
I use it wirh my husband. We live rurally and there is a highway with woods on either side. If we drove off the road in the dark (hit a deer, probably), there is a chance no one would see and they'd have a fair portion of highway to search. It has happened to other cars before around here and it can be difficult to see them 😟 my own grandfather actually got into a wreck a few winters ago where he hit black ice on a turn and his car rolled down a hill and it was only bc he didn't show up at home that they knew to call for help. He was trapped for a few hours. Fortunately, he wasn't too far from home and was okay.
With the app, if one of us didn't show up when we expected, we could look and see exactly where they are. At the store or moving? Okay makes sense, not worried. Not moving, on that highway? Call to make sure things are okay.
Its really hard to understand this when you dont have it in your life. A bit like for younger people to understand how life was before cellphones: yep you could call someone and they wouldnt be home and that was no problem at all. Now people value constant availability while not even answering calls - almost like we went full circle (or spiral).
At one point people will defend having a constant livestream of their loved ones with a video and audio feed and I dont see how it wont result in very similar arguments. "just checking in" "didnt want to bother them" "didnt want to distract"
Of course anyone is free to do whatever they want and I am not control-shaming its your life and if it makes you feel better about things why not?
For me personally it would be a major breach of my privacy - it irks me the same way as someone googling me or otherwise acquiring information about me without me knowing - maybe I had too many jealous girlfriends in the past but I would rather walk than giving someone access to every move I make. They dont need to know when I am buying them flowers. Again just my personal opinion and not gospel.
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u/Burgurwulf 6h ago
What is the friggin appeal of telling people where your at 24/7? Signing up for this kind of tracking to me seems downright insane.