ALL Phones in New England Will Alarm at the Same Time TODAY: When, Why, and What Will It Say?

"This is not a drill, I repeat..."

Wait. THIS IS A DRILL. Well, a test.

TODAY, Wednesday, October 4, 2023, all individuals with a cell phone will have an alarm sent to their phones.

The alarm will be sent at 2:20 EDT across the entire country. So yes, everyone in and outside of New England will have an alarm sent to their phone at the exact same moment.

According to a CBS article, ""The purpose of the October 4 test is to ensure that the systems continue to be effective means of warning the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level," the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is conducting the test in coordination with the Federal Communication Commission, said in a statement."

The test will be sent once and last one minute, so it won't inconvenience your shameless social media scrolling.

If you don't like spoilers, stop reading.

BUT if you want a heads up of what the alarm will say, according to a USA Today article, it will read:

This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.

It's also worth noting, according to CBS:

all radios and televisions will also broadcast a test emergency alert at the same time as part of the broader test. This message, which will run for approximately one minute, will state: “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.”

How do we feel about this test? Do we like the fact that national emergencies can and will be texted to everyone in one second? Or is this a weird concept we don't want to start implementing?

How young do kids have phones? Should they be accessing the same news we are?

There is a better question: should we get to choose what kind of information we receive?