iPhone Taps into the BedBug Market
Website Article: http://www.ajc.com/news/track-bed-bugs-with-725919.html
A new iPhone app tracks where bedbugs are around the country. This should be of high importance to Cincinnati locals, since Cincinnati is a top 10 hotpot for these critters. I have been ignorant to this fact until a friend of mine happily pointed out that the area I live in is nototrious for bedbugs. not to worry, my house is not infested!
When I was younger, my parents would never dream of this type of technology, being able to track if a business has been deemes dirty or not. Traveling 10 years ago did not entail jumping through so many hoops. Then, all you had to was book your hotel, flight, and where you got your rental car. There was a sense of trust that establishments would not allow their custoemrs to stay in an infested hotel, that trust no longer exists. Now in order to travel you have to go to Travelocity.com, use Google map to see if the area is clean, and now log onto the new app to see if it has a history of bedbugs. It has sparked paranoia in some people. The creator of this app, Adam Kotkin, won't even go to the movie theatre because of the fear of bed bugs crawling on him and infesting his house. My friend works at a bank, she waited on someone who had bedbugs crawling on her, she stopped waiting on the person and had them escorted out of building because she was putting everyone in the building at risk of being infested with bedbugs. Even I think twice before sitting in a public establishments.
This new app tracks where bedbugs have been reported. Some businesses were reported to have thousands of these critters without the knowledge of the management. The sad part of the article is that some Departments of Community Health ignore the steadily rising infestation because there is simply too many to keep track of.
Once on the list however, your business will remain on the list. It will show how long your establishment has been on the list though. Kotkin has a staff of people who work seven days a week t ensure that the app remains accurate.
I think that this app will be helpful to the average person. However, I can see it sparking a new paranoia that will enable people to no longer want to travel or even leave the comfort of their own homes. It also has the potential to ruin a business's name, even after the bedbugs have been killed off.
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