Alone Together

A girl sits alone in a bar. She is an easy target for all predators, and it would be easy to bring some kind of harm to her. This chance at harm to her would be significantly reduced if she had someone with her, but she is alone, letting people take advantage of the situation. The next day, she regrets ever going out at all, and she vows not to go out ever again due to the terrible experience. This shouldn’t happen. People should be able to go out into the world and have a good time without the constant threat that someone might act against them.

Part of the problem with going out alone is that you don’t feel like anyone will help. Even in large crowds, it is easy for everyone to look away and think that someone else will help those who are in need. What people truly need in these situations is a friend, or, at the very least, someone who will look out for them. If they had that, then they might be safe. If more people had such people to look out for them, they’d feel more free to go out and have fun. That is where SafeTeam comes into play.

SafeTeam is both an app and a website that helps people to not be so alone when they are practically anywhere. People who use the app can alert others in the area when they feel that they are in some kind of danger or if they are simply uncomfortable with the people around them. Others who have that app will be told when someone in their area needs them and how dangerous the situation is. Different colored leaves represent different levels of threats and urgency, so those who have a chance to help can use that to determine if they would really be of any use.

I personally like this idea. It is smart to enlist the help of people who you might be able to help as well. There are only some parts of SafeTeam that concern me. I feel like people could easily take advantage of this system, just like how many apps like this and Pokemon Go have been used to target others, and people with ill intentions might target those who are in a vulnerable condition. They said that they will have a test so that these kinds of people can be weeded out, but I still have my doubts that people who take the test won't just answer in the way they know they are supposed to answer. Also, if they use social security numbers to perform background checks, I think a lot of people might not use the app as they might think it could be a means of a scam. I also believe that some people might still ignore the pleas of others even though they have the app, and then the app might become useless. I think these problems need to be properly addressed before I would ever be willing to get such an app.