You have probably heard about the increased risk that comes from using a cell phone while driving. This week’s article focuses on a different group using cell phones in a different situation. The information may surprise you. Go to the link below and read the article. Write a reflective comment that shows you have read the article, expresses your views, and addresses my questions.
What do you think about the statistics that were presented at the beginning of the article? If the study were conducted with older children or adults, what do you think the results would be? What is your response to the following quote: "Younger peoples' brains are wired differently and are better able to multitask than older people, but they still have diminished attention to whatever primary task they're supposed to be doing."
Cell Phone Article
9 comments:
This article was about pedestrians with cell phones getting hit by cars more so than those without. They made it a main point that multi-tasking is the reason people getting killed these days. Well, the world has become a more competitive place, and multi-tasking has become a part of people’s lives. If they get hit by a car, it is because they had too much on their minds to think 100% about safety. I found it very annoying to know that driver’s get a very light ticket ($50-$60), as opposed to speeding. If somebody in a car hits somebody because the driver is distracted, that is complete and total manslaughter, and should not be dealt with lightly. This said, pedestrians need to take more careful precautions when dealing with something serious, such as crossing the street, and drivers need to be more careful of pedestrians, and basically, follow the laws. This will make our world a better place, thanks, bye.
The article about pedestrians on the phone more likely to be hit by a car then those not on the phone really moved me.
I don't think you should be on the phone or listening to music while crossing the road.
The quote to me meant that though younger peoples are better able to multitask they're also more likely to be hyper active and not pay attention.
Also they don't know better than adults, or right form werong, or most of the time ever follow rules.
The article about pedestrians talks about the safety of crossing the roads in general, whether you are talking on the mobile phone, listening to iPods or watching TV in your car. I agree with that absolutely, because the number of children owning mp3 players and mobile phones is increasing relatively. I think it would be worsen because almost each adult drives a car, owns a mobile or an ipod and maybe both. It is true that younger people are able to multitask more than adults, because in my opinion their brains are empty and not used for many years, they are still new and fresh. But on the other hand, adults have a better attention than young people because they tested or watched accidents in their life which made them learn to take care of theirselves.
I think that the statistics in the article appear reasonable. But I think that kids could easily get distracted while crossing the street, and not only by talking on the phone. Anyone has a 50-50 chance to get distracted or not see a car speeding their way. If adults were the ones being experimented with, I think that the same results will appear. Yes children cant multi task but they can still watch where they are going while walking even if they were on the phone or talking to somebody walking next to the child. If it was a kid or an adult crossing the street they both have a chance to getting distracted and run over.
I agree to the statistics presented at the beginning of the article, when one multi tasks his attention is being spread through out many areas and so will not focus completely and so crossing the road will take longer and maybe done less effectively. And no if the experiment were to be done with adults or even older students the results will remain unchanged. Well i think that children are more capable of multi tasking than adults are, but I think that’s only because children are physically stronger than adults and so appear that they can do more things at once. While crossing the road or driving a car or engaging in something that might be life threatening one must completely focus and concentrate. It might not be only your life that you are risking by multi tasking when you should really be concentrating.
Noor Mansur
I think that the statistics at the beginning of the article were pretty accurate and 20% does not surprise me. I think it still would have a number of people who are careless when crossing on the phone if it was done with adults however, it would be a number less than 20%. I agree with what the quote is saying that younger kids can multi-task but when they are doing something they forget the rest of the world. So in the end not only children should be careful when they cross while they are talking on the phone but so should the whole world.
I think that the statistics at the beginning of the article are accurate. I know that cell-phones and I-pods can distract a person from their surronding and if in a street it could cause some serious problems. Since the person would be too preoccupied with their phone or Ipod they may not hear the honk of a car or a screech of a tire. If the study were to be conducted on children and adults, I think that the results would be similar, but possibly a little higher probability of an adult getting hit since some adults start to lose their hearing as they get older while children still retain theirs. My response to that quote is that younger kids can multi task a little easier than adults, but they can still get so caught up on one specific task, they can forgot about the other tasks around them. This works into the situation described in the article of people crossing the street with phones since people could get so caught up with their conversation they may forgot about where they're walking and get hit by a car.
The statistic which had the most impact on me was the time one- “Kids who were having phone conversations took 20 percent longer to cross the street than their phone-free counterparts…” because I did not like the way the other statistics were worded, which left a lot of room for interpretation. However I completely agree that talking on a cellphone while crossing the street is a dangerous, and unworthy, endeavor. I rarely, if ever cross a street while talking on a phone, and I never bring my IPod out on the streets with me, so that doesn’t effect me either. If the studies were conducted with older people, I think that they would probably be worse in terms of the “close calls” or hits. At the same time older pedestrians are less “spacey” and pay more attention to the road, in my opinion. For me, it was hardwired in my brain, by my parents, to always look both ways before crossing the street. I agree with the quote that younger people’s brains are better at multitasking, but have diminished attention to whatever task they were doing. I see that very quote happened to myself whenever I do homework and Facebook at the same time. I think that that quote is accurate, but that it gives no excuse for anybody to talk on a cellphone while crossing the street.
The results didn't surprise me in the least, I myself have had many close calls when on the phone or listening to music. Adults get distracted just as easily as children so these statistics probably could be applied to adults as well. If drivers can get a ticket for speaking on a cell phone, then the pedestrian needs to be responsible for their own safety. It is good that attention is being brought to this, maybe a solution for this problem could be found.
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