How Your Phone and Social Media Can Save Your Life

Photo of a phone wearing a red cape

This past weekend a man in Johannesburg was saved from the clutches of criminals by his phone and social media.

According to The Next Web:

Driving in the South African city, the man found himself the victim of a carjacking, quickly forced into the boot of his car. Luckily, the carjackers didn’t realise that he still had his cell phone on him.

He shot off a text message to his girlfriend, who decided that one tool at her disposal to help her find him was Twitter ….

The man’s girlfriend tweeted the car’s registration number, allowing others on Twitter to tweet its location to rescuers, who eventually tracked the man down and saved him.

So why am I so interested in social media and location-based services like Foursquare, Yelp, and Path? Personal safety is part of it.