Give Me Your Undivided Attention
As I was wandering the campus on Sunday, I saw an unusual number of couples walking hand in hand where one of the pair was simultaneously talking on a cell phone. Strangest of all was a couple who were both talking on their phones. It’s possible that they were talking to each other, but I doubt it. It seems a shame to waste an idyllic walk with one’s significant other by talking to someone else on the phone.
It’s not at all uncommon to see parents talking on the phone while pushing a stroller. Being ignored by one’s parents builds a child’s character and independence, but again it seems like a missed opportunity for a bit of togetherness. It’s just payback when teenagers don’t want to be seen with their parents, a phenomenon you can observe in family groups where a bored teen chats on the phone while the elders point out the campus sights.
But cell phones seem to encourage us to do too many things at the same time. Last spring, I saw a guy riding a bike, and holding his dog’s leash with one hand while talking on his phone with the other. The dog seemed quite happy. I wonder what would happen if the dog decided to chase a squirrel, or the bike ran into one of the giant potholes that had opened up over the winter, or a cell-phoning parent and stroller suddenly came out of nowhere.
Professors Sam Wang and Alan Gelperin gave a talk about Neuroscience and Everyday Life. One of their topics was experimental results that show that multitasking is not as efficient as doing tasks sequentially – overall performance suffers when we try to do two things at the same time. At lectures the problem is the distracting effect of texting, tweeting and checking Facebook while the person at the front of the room is trying to explain something. There’s little doubt that people who play with their phones and computers while sometimes tuning in to the lecture do not learn as well as those who focus.
Another study showed that driving while distracted is a major cause of auto accidents; cell-phone use, especially texting, is implicated in a quarter to a third of all fatalities. One doesn’t have to drive far on a typical interstate to see someone weaving between lanes, or drifting onto the shoulder, or slowing down dangerously because they’re looking down at a phone. Of course, there are plenty of other driving distractions, like eating, reading, shaving, putting on makeup, fiddling with the GPS, and holding animated conversations with passengers. But texting seems to be the equivalent of being well over the legal limit for alcohol.
In ancient cars like mine, the controls are buttons and knobs of various sizes and shapes, which can be manipulated by feel. But the trend in new cars is toward interfaces that require looking at a touch screen to select items from a menu, just like a phone or a computer screen. You can’t operate such interfaces without taking your eyes off the road for considerable periods of time. At 75 miles per hour, a car travels 110 feet in one second, so if you poke around on a screen for three seconds trying to adjust the radio, you’ve covered the length of a football field without seeing what’s around you.
The author writes about the following driving distractions EXCEPT ________.
