Facebook seems to aim to be the be-all-end-all of social media sites, and it shows. Many have already noticed how it seemed to integrate successful features from other social media platforms, like Snapchat and Instagram, so that it can be a one-stop-shop for users who like to do everything in one app. In addition to these, the site also developed features of its own that range from extremely helpful to almost useless (looking at you, color text posts).
However, some of their design decisions for these apps seem to be baffling. Consider "Safety Check," a feature that was implemented in 2014.
It is used by people to mark their selves as "Safe" during an emergency in an area. This feature makes it so that they can easily let their friends and family know that they are, well, safe.
Safety Check page produces 'eerie' results
"Safety Check is our way of helping our community during natural disasters and gives you an easy and simple way to say you’re safe and check on all your friends and family in one place," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg himself wrote in an official post dated October 2014.
Now, some three years later, Safety Check received its own tab. While it seems like a good idea on paper to have a dedicated page for this very helpful feature, The Verge pointed out the results are "pretty eerie."
"A promotional photo shows the Safety Check page displaying what’s essentially a news feed of catastrophes — including a collapse, a fire, and a typhoon — and people marking themselves safe," Jacob Kastrenakes of The Verge writes.
They add that the feature also lets users "explore disasters around the world." It needs no explanation how this can be rather unsettling.
Some pros and cons
But even disregarding the design choices, the feature still has intrinsic flaws. For one, there is still a bug yet to be fixed that triggers the safety checks even if there is no actual emergency.
This could lead to stressed-out friends and family members, as well as users flooded with unnecessary Safety Check requests.
However, it's not all bad. It has been reported that Facebook added an option where users can send donations and offer help in these disasters. This is one way the ability to browse the emergencies could make sense, as users can just bring up the tab and see which disasters they think they can help with.
The new Safety Check tab will be implemented in the coming weeks. This is one of the many updates that Facebook has rolled out recently.
