I had heard of the Citizen App but had resisted downloading it onto my phone. I questioned whether I needed yet another app. I live on apos, especially during this pandemic. Online shopping and being able to order food delivery made life easier for me. Plus, I did my part to keep the economy going.

To keep my app luge going, I did give in and downloaded the Citizen app. It tells you of reported incidents in a particular radius surrounding you.

But now, every hour or few minutes, I am alerted to a reported kitchen fire or transformer fire. I also receive the disturbing alerts that 500 feet away is a man yielding a knife. The constant alerts, while perhaps helpful, also have us having to be constantly vigilant.

I’m a New Yorker. I am vigilant by nature. However, it seems we are edgier now. I now know for sure that certain blocks I walk have people pretending to be shooting guns and groups beating on each other.

This Citizen app thing, while helpful, can also be quite unnerving. Particularly, if you have it set to receive notifications. The constant beeps make you feel that not all is right with the world. One has to ask oneself at what point does one reach information overload? And, at what point does one reach a “bad things happen” saturation point?

All these alerts cannot be healthy for one’s peace of mind. Although, knowing that there is a guy wildly swinging a knife nearby, is useful information if you are a walker like me.

I suppose its a matter of figuring out which noise to tune out.