Ashley Flores

I had recently gotten a text message the other day about a missing girl. The message read, “My 13 year old girl, Ashley Flores, is missing. She has been missing for two weeks now. Maybe if everyone passes this on, someone will see this child. That is how the girl from Stevens Point was found, by circulation of her picture on TV. The internet circulates even overseas, South America, Canada and etc. Please pass this on to everyone in your address book. With GOD on her side, she will be found. I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know. PLEASE! It is still not too late. Please help us find her. If anyone knows anything, please contact me at: HelpfindAshleyFlores@yahoo.com. I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!! It only takes 2 seconds to forward this… If it was your child you would want to help her too.” As I read this over and over again, I think about all the different ways that technology has changed everyone’s life. I received this message as a text message, but it was said to be an email. Also, I can hear the voice of the parent who lost their child. I believe the most inspiring sentence in this message is the last one, “If it was your child, you would want to help her too.” I cannot imagine losing my child. That is a parent’s worst fear is to loss their child, as in losing them to a disease or anything like that. All I wonder is if this girl will be found before it is too late. Also, what happened that the parent needed to do something himself instead of waiting for the police to do something with the situation?
In the past, people have used word of mouth to get the information around. Like if the king was passing through or if someone was dying. Then the newspapers and town criers took over the field of getting news around; for example, Chicago Sun-Tribune and The New York Times. Finally the internet exploded as the number one resource tool. As the parent who wrote this, “The internet circulates even overseas, South America, Canada, and etc.” In addition, to the internet, text messages and calling people have taken over the way people find things out. How did this technology come up over night? I mean, the internet did not have a ‘baby’ phase; it was as big as it is now when it started. So how does something like that happen? I also wonder what new ways of news will be here in the future. Maybe, just maybe, these new technologies will let us know the information two seconds after it happened. Hope is all there is in the world; hope for new technologies to give us information, and hope that this girl will be found.