In today’s day and age, we miss so much going on around us, due to our heads constantly being down. According to the Washington Post, we have been named “digital dead-walkers”. When you are walking around campus, we see a whole lot of these people. “Dead-walkers” are the humans around us who have their eyes fixated on their phones while walking around. I am sure we are all guilty of this, whether we realize it or not. Even just walking around with your headphones in can be considered “dead-walking”.
On the dangerous end, we hear a lot of incidents that involve texting and driving. In the article Eyes down, minds elsewhere, ‘dead-walkers’ are among us, by Ashley Halsey III, she states some astonishing facts about this idea. The article states, “But the fact that 3,154 people died and an estimated 424,000 were hurt in 2013 is evidence that a great many people are willing to ignore the advice to keep their attention on the road”(Halsey, 2015). This just happens to be texting and driving, but it is sad to see the amount of people who have died because of it. I beg everyone I know to take my advice when I say no texting and driving, because that is such a preventable accident.
Although, texting and driving is huge, so is walking and texting. We never hear about an accident being the pedestrians fault, but of course sometimes unfortunately it is not all the drivers wrong doing. In the same article above, it is mentioned, “Some data suggests that at any given moment on the streets of America, 60 percent of pedestrians are distracted while walking, meaning either on the phone or doing something on their phone”(Halsey, 2015). Pedestrians are distracted to a new extent today. When our heads are fixated down at our phones, we don't always feel the need to pick our heads up and see if a car is coming. We tend to just think that since we are pedestrians, cars will stop for us. Although that is the case a lot of the time, there are many cases where the pedestrian has actually walked right in front of the car because they were distracted.
I thought this topic was interesting because I could relate it to the video we watched in class, Our Mobile Lives. They spoke a lot about how texting and driving/walking is literally killing us. This documentary taught me more people are dying from texting and driving, than they are from drinking and driving. Texting and driving is illegal in about 39 states, but I believe it should be illegal in every state. This topic is something I hold close to my heart, due to losing a friend at age 15. Ever since then I have not stood for texting and driving but I know a lot of friends and family who don't think it is that bad. I am curious what everyone else thinks.
What do you CM3945 think about texting and driving, as well as texting and walking? Are you a “dead-walker”? Do you see these “dead-walkers” everyday?
III, A. H. (2015, September 27). Eyes down, minds elsewhere, 'deadwalkers' are among us. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/eyes-down-minds-elsewhere-deadwalkers-are-among-us/2015/09/27/a3ad1da2-51bb-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/eyes-down-minds-elsewhere-deadwalkers-are-among-us/2015/09/27/a3ad1da2-51bb-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html.
This was an interesting post that is relevant to what we learned in class but also what’s currently happening in the world in general. “Dead-walkers” is an interesting term used to describe people who text while walking, which is also dangerous in its own right. What many people fail to realize is that while the conversations we have while texting aren’t important, more often than not, the act of texting itself still requires a high degree of concentration. While it’s easy to blame technological advancements, over-reliance on mobile devices and generally just a weak will that can’t cope without instant gratification, I believe there’s a better explanation.
ReplyDeleteEver since coming to the US, I have noticed an extreme difference in culture, regarding phone calls: almost nobody does it. And I’m not talking about just the millennials, even Gen X and some late millennials I know rarely calls someone unless dealing with a time-sensitive subject. When you think about it, it is the cultural resistance against phone calls coupled with a high need for instant gratification that leads to dead-walkers and, well, dead drivers. Just imagine, if people can either muster the up the courage to tell their conversation partner to talk later if it’s nothing important, or learn to have a normal phone call, half of the problem has already been solved.
Awesome blog post! And so relevant to what happened to me today. I was driving through Concord, and happened to see one of the most baffling things I have seen in awhile. I am not shitting you, I saw a 5 or 6 year old kid, riding on his bicycle, on the wrong side of the road, with no helmet on, WHILE USING HIS PHONE. He was not dead walking, but dead riding. He was swerving back and forth, and I said out loud, “this is the world we live in, depicted in one image.” What on earth could this child have been using his phone for, and what was so important he had to use it while on the road and riding his bicycle! “Some data suggests that at any given moment on the streets of America, 60 percent of pedestrians are distracted while walking, meaning either on the phone or doing something on their phone.” This is an ever climbing number I fear, and something I am often guilty of. Great post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post this week! I don't think there is ever going to be an easy fix to the problem of distracted. I see people doing it all the time, and even I am guilty of touching my phone to skip a song or two while I'm driving. Technology is so ingrained in our culture and world that texting while driving is a deadly side effect of it. We can't leave our phones alone for the time it takes to drive from point A to point B, and it's an issue that I wish someone could solve.
ReplyDeleteGoing off of that, I think walking while looking at our phones is an issue too. Not paying attention to your surroundings can cause more problems than just a car accident. If you have headphones in or you're staring at your phone while you're walking, specifically at night, you might not notice that there is someone following you. We need to have our guard up all the time, especially women who are alone. When it's dark out and I'm alone, I'll always call someone to talk with until I get to where I am going in order to not distract myself with my phone so I can be aware of the things or people around me.
This is a very interesting post that we should all take the time to consider. I find my self often looking up and realizing that i could have easily embarassed my self by walking into a group of people or even a tree because I was staring at my phone relying on other instincts, let alone been involved in a serious accident. We all have to constantly aware of our surroundings. Head phones in and scrolling through instagram unfortunately is simply not a safe option.
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