** Update: Ayvani Hope Perez was found safe 9/18/13 YES!**
That’s the feeling I got yesterday.
I was sitting at my desk working when I came across a story on CNN about a little girl that had been abducted from her home during a frightening home invasion. Her name is Ayvani Hope Perez and as of this writing, she’s still missing.
At a high level, two pieces of garbage broke into her house at 2:15 in the morning and demanded money and jewelry. The mother tried to hide her two kids but was unable to do so before being discovered by the intruders. During the ensuing drama the two cowards shot the family dog and took a poor girl out of the closet she was hiding in and took her from her family.
As a father of two girls, this is a nightmare scenario. I can’t imagine my daughters having to go through something like this. The fear that poor girl probably felt as she was pulled from the closet and taken from her home and her family, not knowing what was going to happen and not having the power to do anything about it. It breaks my heart.
You often hear of the power of social media and I’ve witnessed it personally in the past. Most recently we saw it with the Boston Marathon bombing. Twitter and other social media outlets were on fire with information as it was unfolding. A flood of information was flowing. Everyone was on the lookout for the two perpetrators. Why wouldn’t the same happen with an amber alert?
I took to social media to start my own fire to get the word out about this poor little girl. You hear that the first hours of an abduction are the most crucial, so I wanted to get word out as soon as possible so these two could be captured and hopefully taken out. I posted links to the article and asked for retweets. Nothing. I posted to Twitter again specifically asking for retweets. Maybe a couple of people retweeted. I then blasted it out to all my social networks via Hootsuite to make sure it grew legs on Facebook and Google+. I also continued to post multiple times on Twitter in the event some people missed it in their feed. Again it was just a trickle of activity (I truly thank those that DID share the information).
Maybe it was just me. Maybe I just don’t have social power like that. So, I checked what was trending on Twitter in hopes that there was a movement underway. But to my disappointment, the case wasn’t there. People were more wrapped up talking about the latest celebrity gossip or stupid TV show. I searched for various related hashtags and there was a smattering of discussion, but it wasn’t as substantial as I expected.
Maybe an Amber Alert should be an automatic trend topic? Why not? You’re talking about someone’s child being in danger. Especially in a case where you know the violent details. This is not a case where an ex-husband took their kid and was on the run. This was two strangers violently taking a girl from her home. I would think that would be cause for immediate distribution and highlighting. For that matter, why wouldn’t CNN and other news outlets carry it as a banner on their site until it is resolved? Amber alerts aren’t so common that you’d be “crying wolf” by posting them when they happen.
I would be lying to you if I told you I wasn’t disappointed. I was taken aback at the lack of effort by social media in this case. Particularly in the circles which I hang out. Moms and dads are a powerful group on social media. Why didn’t they rally for someone else’s kid? Why didn’t more moms and dads feel the need to just simply share the information? Why would you not retweet or share a story about someone’s little girl being taken in a home invasion? It literally takes a second or less to spread the word. It’s so simple to do, but could provide significant value and potentially save a life.
The girl is 4’9″ tall and 93lbs and was wearing pajamas. Pajamas! All she wanted to do was go to bed and have sweet innocent dreams before going to school the next day. Instead her life was turned upside down.
Why?
So the question I ask myself is why. Maybe it’s what I alluded to before and I just don’t have the personal social media reach. But at a larger level, why didn’t it take root and spread? Why wasn’t #AyvaniHopePerez a trending topic? Why didn’t people embrace this case and try to help? Why didn’t it resonate with people the same way it did for me?
Is it that people are used to amber alerts now and simply think they are just a part of life? Perhaps a part of life that is so far removed from their world that they don’t give it much thought. Someone else will take care of it. The extract below from amberalert.gov shows this is not the case.
Even worse to think about, is it because she is hispanic? If she was blond with blue eyes, would her picture be all over the news right now? Think about the various cases you can remember about young people being abducted or being the victim of similar heinous crimes. Jaycee Dugard, Elizabeth Smart, Natalee Holloway, Caylee Anthony, and JonBenet Ramsey often come to mind. You can draw your own conclusions but it’s pretty apparent national news coverage and public awareness seems to focus on particular cases while others are passed over. Unfortunately, race continues to play a role in this country whether you like to acknowledge that or not. What used to be hidden under a hood now runs rampant behind the anonymity provided by the internet. It’s something to consider when wondering why there’s a lack of coverage in this case.
Whatever the reason may be, I’m hoping it corrects itself and more people go all in when trying to help out someone else’s family living a nightmare. It doesn’t take much to post information. It doesn’t require a lot of effort to simply retweet or share details that may save a life.
Yesterday social media let me down. Hopefully today it doesn’t matter and a little girl gets to go home and hug her mom.
What can you do?
First of all, pay attention. Don’t let stories like these fall under the radar. When they happen, everyone needs to participate. If it was your daughter, you’d want the same in return. Share information with everyone you know so they can share with everyone they know. Your reach online, and in the real world, has never been better thanks to social media. It’s time we use it for good and work together as a community to help people out.
TWEET IT to get the word out to all your contacts.
Like the FACEBOOK page and keep in touch with the latest developments.
The problem isn’t that people are wrapped up in celebrity gossip and don’t care (in this case, anyway.)
The problem is that there is so much old and flat out incorrect/falsified information floating around that people don’t know if it is true or whether it’s another bunch of BS. Not to mention, hardcore advocates of any one particular cause (animal shelter “last calls”, missing child reports, political propaganda) are usually unfollowed or blocked in social media feeds by most people who aren’t advocates.
If said situation isn’t happening on a legitimate news source, a lot of people (myself included) won’t go out of their way to spread it around either. You just can’t trust everything online.
As for not having the social clout to spread something virally online—not many people do. Don’t lose sleep over it.
Also, something I noticed this last year (or since February, anyway) is that cell phone carriers DO blast Amber alerts out. I’ve gotten two this year, as has my wife. I don’t know when that started, but it is a good idea. That’s something, even if Twitter doesn’t trend it. Maybe you could write them and ask why they don’t?
Thanks Brandon. All valid points and good feedback. Yes, I get the national amber alerts on my phone as well, and any other emergency data that comes out. I think they limited this to a local amber alert and that’s why I didn’t receive anything here in the DC area. I also completely agree that there is so much misinformation and poor reporting out there that you sometimes become deaf to it. But, there are cases that come along that you can kinda weed through and see them as legit and deserving of status above the fold. We can hope that the amber alert process in and of itself is structured to weed a lot of the noise out and really only report the true and imminent threat information. And I also agree that many people won’t pay attention unless it’s a national news source. That goes back to my issue with their coverage as well. It just doesn’t seem to be extensive at this point. In fact, I just went to cnn.com and of all the news on their front page, there is nothing of this case. Not even in the US section below. I just wish there was more publicity for it to hopefully come to a happy resolution.
Well at least there is a happy ending to this story, she was found alive.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/17/police-14-year-old-girl-abducted-during-home-invasion-near-atlanta-all-out/
AGREED! Great news!
Thank you, Brandon. I found your article when I was moved to do my own Google search for “people don’t care about missing child”, wondering why I have been met with such hostility for relentlessly searching NYC and spreading the word about mIssing Avonte Oquendo. My throat is hurting from having to answer the same question from everyone I give a flyer to: “Why are you doing it?”. The 2nd most asked question is: “Are you related or something?” (as if they couldn’t fathom anyone doing it otherwise), and 3rd is : “Why is the city spending so much manpower and money on searching for that kid? Why is he so special?”. That alone is a total misconception, as looking for him is a needle in a haystack and thousands are needed in a city of millions, not just 100! When I showed up to volunteer to search on Wed. night, I was the only volunteer, and yesterday morning, at the designated time that we were supposed to go out, there were only 5 of us. Luckily, more showed up throughout the day, but it was virtually “nothing” . Also, in the past 17 days that he has been missing, there has hardly been any media coverage. I had to go to Facebook for updates. Thank goodness that NY 1 News finally has a clip running. Thank you to my search team member, Martha Hernandez, for explaining in her interview that the police can’t do it alone! I hope more people join the search, which is complicated by the vast number of immigrants in NY that don’t speak or read English. Even if everyone just searches around their own block, that would help, but sadly, it’s not happening. We can only hope that by speaking out, we can change people’s hearts.