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I frequently notice people who have their heads in their cell phones or ear buds plugged into their ears listening to their ipod while walking around in town or going for a jog, working out in the gym, shopping, or even while eating or hanging out at resturants and bars. I know that these days things like cell phones and internet access are pretty much essential to modern man’s survival and technology is a good thing if it’s not abused. But, and I will admit I’ve been guilty of this a few times myself, when you’re in a public place especially outdoors on a sidewalk, street, or parking lot in your vehicle or even indoors since things can still happen anywhere and you have your music blasting while hooked to your ipod or you’re so busy talking, texting, or web browsing on your cell phone that you’re oblivious to what is going on around you you’re taking a gamble with your safety because you will be a much easier target for a potential rapist, carjacker, kidnapper, thief, or mugger than if you were exercising situational awareness at all times and not allow anybody to close in on your personal space and do you possible harm without reacting to it appropriately as we are taught to do so in module 1 of the SDTS or even 60 minute self defense. Escape and evasion techniques against mugs and holds and weapon situations are taught in modules 4,5, and 8 but we shouldn’t even have to use those if we simply stay alert to what is going on around us and be ready to react and nip a potential situation in the bud before it progresses to a more dangerous, high risk situation like allowing someone to walk up to you and grab you or pull a gun or knife on you. Not to mention there is the hazard of being ran over by a motor vehicle if you’re walking along side a street or crossing a street if you’re not alert or distracted. Sometimes if I’m home alone I will be listening to my ipod(most who know me already know I’m an avid rock fan and metal head) while preparing dinner or lunch or other chores with doors locked mind you but I still dunno if even this is a good idea in case of an attempted break in. Just wanted to know everybody’s thoughts on this? I’m not saying we should make laws against using cell phones or ipods while walking around town like Michael Bloomberg did in New York but that we as individuals should use common sense and exercise caution when using devices.
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Absolutely.
The thing to do is access devices in safe zones. Even ducking into a store for a few seconds can do the trick. It’s obvious that distractions like texting and playing games enable threats to close the distance on you. They suck in all of your awareness and you’re essentially flying blind.
Years ago when the walkman came out, people running in central park were cautioned not to use them because of obvious reasons. Today its even worse since the smartphone captures both auditory and visual resources.
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I agree 100% with Damian.
It is sad that we may have to “inconvenience” ourselves in order to utilize things like texting others, checking email or even talking on the phone, however, common sense is paramount. Your threat is looking for you to be distracted and as Damian pointed out, modern technologies such as the smartphone captures both auditory and visual resources. Great point Damian..
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Spot on Damian and GR Hutchings… We can only be observant on one thing at a time… This is one of the reasons why multitasking does not work… Also, our peripheral vision is not very effective, where our focus is primarily in the center and only about 10% of what see comes from light sources. The rest are simply constructs in our brain. Modern technologies highly distract from that area. Add to it the auditory and it gets worse.
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