“A new counselling service harnesses the power of the text message…A person can contact Crisis Text Line without even looking at her phone. The number—741741—traces a simple, muscle-memory-friendly path down the left column of the keypad. Anyone who texts in receives an automatic response welcoming her to the service. Another provides a link to the organization’s privacy policy and explains that she can text “STOP” to end a conversation at any time. Meanwhile, the incoming message appears on the screen of Crisis Text Line’s proprietary computer system. The interface looks remarkably like a Facebook feed—pale background, blue banner at the top, pop-up messages in the lower right corner—a design that is intended to feel familiar and frictionless. The system, which receives an average of fifteen thousand texts a day, highlights messages containing words that might indicate imminent danger, such as “suicide,” “kill,” and “hopeless.”
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Source: The New Yorker By Alice Gregory
Image: Credit Illustration by Cristiana Coucerio; photographs: Top to Bottom: Nick Vaccaro / The Image Bank / Getty; Anna Eckold / Moment / Getty; Atsushi Yamada / Photodisc / Getty
