What about those of us who don't use FaceBook or Twitter? (like me)

And no, using either Facebook or Twitter is not an option for me.  I find both of them to be useless.

I really don't understand this reliance on social websites like twitter or facebook for something so serious as threat warnings. Not that they've been all that helpful in the past...but to rely on giving people warnings through places like this just tells me what kind of idiots are running things these days. And what about people that don't have computers?

And what about those who don't use social networks like twitter or fb because of all the 'bugs' (virus's, trojans, et al). Kinda defeats the purpose I think.

Exactly to WG, VAX and Uvah. Exactly. 

It would most likely be a way to manipulate fear/obedience since these social sites are fluff. Really, how could anyone take such a warning seriously coming from such a site?

Do I hear a variation on a theme? Big Brother comes to mind. Manipulation through ersatz reporting or a deliberate inaccurate one. Half truths and such. Its called propaganda. Certain governments are good at putting the spin on things.

Personally, I think they should go back to the old Brit idea of a bell and the town crier: "Oh yea, oh yea, oh yea, all hear this, all hear this. The French are coming, the French are coming... hide under your beds, hide under your beds."

Though with all the traffic noise these days, he's gonna need a much bigger friggin' bell.

Seriously, the DHA must have rocks in its head if it thinks Facebook and Twitter is the way to convey emergency alerts.  I mean, there has to be a few million people like me who think both are a total waste of time and don't have accounts to either.

Yep, McCarthyism and "Reds under the Bed" come to mind.  See, it's much easier to control the populace if its living in fear... and Big Brother is there to protect it.

And what a waste of time, energy and resources the Cold War was!  Neither side was going to attack or invade the other, not with the threat of nuclear extinction hanging over their heads.  More to the point, when you have paranoid leaders, you have a paranoid people, and they can be manipulated to do just about anything... like go to wars that are NONE of their business, etc.  Sure it kept a lot of people gainfully employed making bombs and war machines, but surely they could have been gainfully employed making peace time machines.... harvesters and farm equipment, etc. 

War, it's a politicians game.... and like my dad used to say, there'd be no wars if the politicians had to actually fight them.

Come to think of it...I haven't seen or heard the "This is a test and only a test...had it been actual blah blah blah" thing for some time now. What was wrong with that? It came over the type of airwaves that "everyone" has...so why twitter or facebook? Between the reality shows and these "social networking" sites...society is quickly becoming a bunch of brainwashed morons. They should ban reality shows and social networking sites before it's to late.

as was I

I remember asking my dad about that... he said it was since we sat at the same desk every day it would be easier to identify my little pile of ashes

What a terrible thing to hear as a child.

That's hilarious. How delightfully dystopian.

The system died because of lack of use - by the feds.  Every day was a yellow day (with an occasional orange).  It was a perfect example of the boy who cried wolf.  People got use to it and so ignored it.

Twitter and Facebook will be the same.  If they never tweet, then no one will ever know.  If they tweet all the time, people will start ignoring it.

Those "kids" were probably your parents.  By the time I came around (school in 60s). we were ignoring them as well.

I'm so glad that I lived/went to school in the UK during the 50's and 60's.... I missed all that paranoid crap and grew up perfectly abnormal.

The worst thing I had to worry about at school was getting caught smoking... or caught sneaking into the girls showers on sports days (yep, I did that, and it was always a giggle because the female sports teacher was always in their locker room 9just not in the showers] yet I never got caught)

But seriously, having to live with that kind of paranoia as a kid must have been disturbing. I know as a kid I wouldn't have liked to have lived with that shit hanging over my head... the, um, possible nuclear threat and being turned into a crispy critter before [or after] the lunch bell

At least now I know why so many Americans are in therapy...  the f***ed up politicians of the day bred fear and paranoia into the population ....

And those lunatics who managed to avoid the strait jackets and become today's politicians... well they just replaced the lunatics who perpetuated the Cold War mentality that damaged so many.

Quite frankly, if I had been taumatised by the Cold War mentality, I'd be sending the government my all shrink bills and claiming personal injury compensation for undue stress and mental anguish.  I'd also be claiming my quarterly strait jacket replacements... not to mention [probably] six - eight months underwear for when my hands weren't free to attend nature calls.

Yeah, I'm being flippant, but I just find it hard to fathom how a nation of a couple hundred million could be duped and held to ransom by a handful of raving idiots with nuclear 'issues'.  For mine, it was downright criminal.... and sadly, while there's no more reds under the bed, the insanity continues with new US politicians finding new and inventive ways to "put a scare up those dumb fuckers who vote for us."

That about sum it up?

Okay. All summed up.