Asking Siri for Help with Suicide

Recently Apple has made changes to Siri to address the problem of suicide. Let’s take a look at those changes and see if they will be effective.Using Siri can be fun and even useful, but one of the downsides to Siri is that everything you ask her is sent to a server out across the Internet through the wires, switches, and tubes where your question is parsed by Apple’s servers before an answer is sent back to you. This is a downside because the “conversation” is often a stilted one like those you have on walkie-talkies. You need to keep your query simple so Siri won’t be confused, and you have to wait for her to get back to you. If the internet is down, you’re out of luck. The upside to all of this is that Apple gets to look over the types of questions people are seeking answers for. Apparently, a lot of people are asking Siri for help with suicide. Saying “I want to kill my boss” may not produce a useful reply, but now telling Siri “I want to kill myself”, “I want to commit suicide”, or simply “Suicide Hotline” calls up information for National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Siri tells you:“If you are thinking about suicide, you may want to speak with someone at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. They’re at [phone]. Shall I call them for you?”Saying or tapping “yes” calls the number. Saying or tapping “no” causes Siri to search for suicide prevention centers near you. If she can’t find any, she offers to search th...

Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 21, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Tags: Depression Source Type: blogs