Dangers of media

[Ti Designs]

Can't help but notice the number of threads about drivers on phones hitting cyclists, or out own forum members getting hit. Lots of calls for better enforcement of the laws against driving and using a cell phone, but very little comes of it. Why???

Media usage is addictive - it really is that simple. Media usage is also beyond big business, it's the backbone of Wall Street. There's your problem, how do you limit media use without hurting the bottom line? It's the classic case of profit now at any expense.

The addiction is pretty clear. Watch kids who have grown up with cell phones, it's replaced a fair percentage of their senses. They don't look around or listen as much as they check their phones. Many FRMI studies have shown areas of the brain shut down with media usage as the brain starts accepting media as one of it's senses - "seen it with my own eyes" and "seen it on youtube" are becoming the same thing. As with any addiction, there is denial. The gap between using a phone and not is a very large grey area. Everyone knows you're not allowed to drive and text, but define that union... How 'bout just having the phone in your lap while driving, only texting when you're stopped? Then maybe if you're moving, but you're going straight and you have a quick response? Most driver impaired cases come down to "I only looked down for a second", which is denial.

The companies profiting aren't going to slow down any time soon, 'cause nobody else is calling this an addiction. Apple has their watch, which makes it impossible to define when you're on your device and when your device is on you. Google has their Google glasses - a truly scary concept of replacing human perspective with what a search engine wants you to see. LG just came out with a phone that has a single text line on the outside so you don't have to "check your phone" to check your phone. This all amounts to the same thing as cigarettes for those who are addicted to tobacco...

I too am a media addict. If I allow myself I could spent days searching for something on the internet - it's huge, it's vast, it must be out there... I know it's an addiction so I don't allow myself to go down that road. If I had a smart phone I would be even more of an idiot.

[numbskull]

Lots of calls for better enforcement of the laws against driving and using a cell phone, but very little comes of it. Why???
.

Like alcohol use, the public is willing to accept some level of collateral damage in order to preserve an individual liberty.

Cyclists, because they create and accept risk getting on a road with cars, don't count as much in the public consciousness as if, say, baby seals were getting run over.

[Jgrooms]

Excellent synopsis. Addiction = denial. How do we mitigate risk, because as you point out its not going to change ($$$)?

As much as I dislike it, I ride some routes w mirror. Watching what goes on behind you will truly scare you. You can see the distracted drift & react. Hi powered LED all the time. I call it getting yourself inserted into the text cycle by pushing your visibility out by 3-4 x. And one I very much dislike, but some routes at certain times, just have to go.

Lots of angst over group rides here, but bottom line is you are way more visible with a group than alone.

[phcollard]

Excellent post, thank you. Yes the world is changing and it's not for the better.

Being on your phone puts you such a bubble that people become totally unaware of what's going on around them.

Just yesterday I wanted to withdraw a few bills from the local ATM. It's located in a store in a narrow alley. The alley was blocked by a woman standing sideways, texting or Facebooking on her phone. I approched her, I thought it was pretty obvious that I wanted to go to the ATM, and I though she will move on when she will see me. Well I stood beside her for one minute, one whole minute, before she even noticed me. No wonder a driver texting will not see a cyclist on the road.

[merckx]

Spot on, Ed.

[velomonkey]

It's a huge problem and it's gonna get worse before it gets better.

I'm hopeful this situation will soon get better. There are a myriad of technical solutions. Waze, the GPS app, knows you're moving too fast and makes the user say they are the passenger to use the app. Apple and Android will have a "car" setting - one where all messages are not announced drawing the driver to their phone. Siri is basically a tool for driving "Siri, open Pandora play station . . " it works.

And, this stuff made being a parent even harder. One is constantly in a fight with their kid to put the phone away and experience the world first-hand.

For now it's like drunk driving - we all know it's wrong and dangerous - DON'T DO IT. You hear the text come in, just keep driving - it can wait.

[Jeff Borisch]

If you want to know what a person is really like, put a hidden camera in their car.

[eippo1]

One thing I love is that car commercial saying that they made texting safe by putting it in the dashboard instead of the phone. Oh great, now they just made it easier to take your eyes off the road and enabled the driver to multitask.

I remember a study that showed how even with handsfree calling, the cognitive ability to recognize who is calling and process it, effectively removes the driver from driving. Driving is actually a very difficult process and adding phones to yielding, u-turns, and intersections just doesn't make sense. And yes, I have been guilty of sending a text on a straightaway and then thinking about how stupid it is to do.

[tiretrax]

And, this stuff made being a parent even harder. One is constantly in a fight with their kid to put the phone away and experience the world first-hand.


Try taking their media away for a few days. It sets off an uproar at my house. Not fun.

[redir]

It's both a blessing and a curse, a double edge sword. One has to wonder why Steve Jobs and many other high tech CEO's who are leaders in their fields are actually low tech parents who have strict limits on their children's screen time.

[Dustin]

Yes, it is literally addictive when you look at the brain's chemical response to getting a new text or email. Then when you consider all the "free products" in which you are the product, you see that addiction is part of the business model.

I've recent turned my iPhone into a dummer phone by removing email and all forum and blog browsers. The has dramatically reduced the compulsion to check it any time I have a free moment while out and about. Mindfulness/meditation practices have been really helpful as well in restoring an ability to be fully present in my surroundings, to have deep focus, etc.

I think my wife and I still spend too much time on iPads when around the house, which models poor behavior for our 4 year old daughter. So that is the next thing to work on.

[William]

Yesterday was our daughters Birthday so we took the family to the movies to see Minions. When we walked up into the theater, almost every head was bent down looking at a phone while the screen was playing all the pre-feature ads. The theater was not full, but it was full enough to make all the bobbing lights extremely annoying. Then right before the lights go down and the coming attractions start to play, the theater runs a piece on not using cell phones during the movie and asking that they be put on vibrate and put them away. There are a good number of kids in the theater, and that was the point that a couple of moms start shooting pictures with their phones, red eye light and flashes going on to get pictures of their kids about to watch a movie. Once the movie started everyone had put their phones away, but you see lights bobbing on here and there throughout the movie up front. Then about halfway through the movie, a woman in the row in front of me and to my left pulls out her smartphone and wakes it up. In the dark theater, the light being thrown off from it is like a flashlight shining in my face. I can see it is not a not a call or text, she opens up some app and starts looking at something. Just as I am about to say something she shuts it down and puts it back in here purse. Twenty minutes later she does the same exact thing. This time I lean forward, and nicely, but with a little tone, asks her to shut it off because the light is blazingly bright in the dark. She grumbles something but puts it away, clearly not happy I said something to her about it.

Part of the problem is that people do not seem to think that rules apply to them. The theater clearly asked that phones be put away and even show examples on the screen of how annoying it is to others to fire up your phone during the show. There were a lot of kids in the theater and they learn by example. A guy with his wife and son were a couple of rows in front of us and before the movie started his face is buried in his phone. He sits back and puts his feet up on the top of the seat in front him banging away on his phone. His son sitting next to him looks over at him, sits back in the same manner, and puts his feet up on the seat in front of him just like his dad. As soon as he is old enough to have a phone of his own I am sure he will be buried in it as well.

I simply do not understand the need to be distracted from what is going on around you. A few days ago we were driving down our street, and I had noticed the drivers of two cars passing us going the other direction were yapping on the phone. So I started counting the numbers of cars and whether they were on the phone or not. Between that point and an intersection about 1.5 - 1.75 miles away I counted nine cars, six of which had drivers clearly on the phone while they were driving. That was just one sampling, but around here anyway, it seems to be the norm.

I just do not understand the need to jeopardize safety for personal interaction that could be done before you leave, or after you get to your destination.








William

PS: Not sure what is going on with the apostrophe there?

[David Kirk]

As other have said - using the phone is an addiction and it's no more possible for the average addict to not check the phone while driving than it is for the alcoholic to not drink and drive. This means that 'we' can not expect that people will do the right thing and put the phone away while driving - it's not going to happen. Just like with alcohol it's not a moral question like some would like to make it out to be - "good people don't drink/text and drive" is just wrong. Addicts do what they need to do and tell themselves they don't really need to do it. The only way will be to use the available technology to lock the phone while in a car.

But instead the car makers are pouring us more drinks by putting more and more connectivity into cars all the while ignoring everyone's safety. It's like Jack Daniels pouring free drinks at the highway rest area.......what could go wrong?

In my opinion 'we' have signed onto a social contract that says a given number of deaths on the road is worth the freedom to check and see how many facebook likes our latest post has. Sad but true. No one thinks it will happen to them, we all think that we can handle it, and we all think we could quit at any time if we really wanted to. We can't and we won't and more people will die.

I'll bet anything that someone somewhere just read this post while driving and they are thinking it's about someone else - it's not - it's about you......it's about all of us.

dave

[fuzzalow]

I don't understand the attraction or the addiction, although I can understand the definition as to the technicalities of addiction.

I don't see the stimuli of media as sufficient in wanting to chase the buzz. In slightly facetious tones, I can understand the seductive draw of that warm, wrapped in cotton feeling following the pinprick of the heroin syringe. But I absolutely refuse to see the attraction in one more snippet of worthless drivel come texting into a smartphone that one then must view and respond to. Stupid messages between stupid people.

I'm a dad. The way I got through about not falling into the trap of media was to get understanding of worthwhile substance through as a means of prioritizing and understanding as a counter to the need and rush of immediacy and instant gratification found in smartphone media. This was only difficult to get through during early high school years when there was "FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out" which is a peer pressure placed on young teens to fit into the behaviours of the crowd. Such is high school. It was never perfect but I eventually got them to see the disposable and irrelevant uselessness in the texting and other smartphone media distractions. Not high value enough to make it worth immediate attention so they did not fall into the habit of being ruled by their smartphone.

I abhor anecdotal evidence and I present the above less as a story but more as a possible solution. No sense griping about what we all already know is a problem. The problems always start and end with the parents. They have to not allow a modern device to enter their kids lives without proper supervision and guidance - just like anything and everything else a parent is responsible to consider, understand and worry about when it comes to their kids. I can't control what other parents do and how their kids turn out - they all think they are doing a great job! But stupid is as stupid does and we see the results of this everyday in the unruly, disruptive and rude behaviour in others. Such is the world.

Hey, whaddaya gonna do? Take care of your own. Take your best shot doin' it. That's all you can do.

[makoti]

Cyclists, because they create and accept risk getting on a road with cars, don't count as much in the public consciousness as if, say, baby seals were getting run over.

In the other thread, you mentioned a ped in a crosswalk. Do they also "create and accept risk" by simply stepping out into the road?

[nm87710]

YES.

Addiction is easily spotted. Spending more time foruming than riding and posting more often than riding and you just might be an addict. Leading one to wonder which is more important - social media or physical exercise.

[redir]

I simply do not understand the need to be distracted from what is going on around you. A few days ago we were driving down our street, and I had noticed the drivers of two cars passing us going the other direction were yapping on the phone. So I started counting the numbers of cars and whether they were on the phone or not. Between that point and an intersection about 1.5 - 1.75 miles away I counted nine cars, six of which had drivers clearly on the phone while they were driving. That was just one sampling, but around here anyway, it seems to be the norm.



Not to blame the younger generation as I do see this in all ages though it tends to affect the Millennials more, I live and work in a college town and every day at lunch go for a walk around my campus and have made it a habit to look at every driver that goes by and let me tell ya it's quite shocking the number that are not just talking on the phone but clearly texting and totally distracted.

Some you can see try and hide it with the phone held down low and others put the phone right up on the steering wheel you know so they can see through it down the road ahead ::roll eyes::

It's epidemic at this point.

[Mzilliox]

Whats gotten crazy as well is that if you are one of the few people who don't carry a phone at all times, or don't have a smart phone, people actually get a bit angry. People act like it really messes with their day that they can't text me photos or videos or whatever people do. I always have to ask people to use old fashioned email, haha, because my phone only does call and text.

last week I had plans to meet someone at a bar at a specific time. I forgot my phone and rode downtown to the bar. i was 8 minutes late and my friend was not there. I didn't have my phone to call or text, but i assumed, well, i said id be here at a certain time, im only 8 minutes late, ill just have a beer and wait.

never met my friend. she was calling to find out where i was and when she got no answer... well, she left and assumed i wasn't coming... she didn't realize i ride a bike for transport and don't use technology to replace my senses. I still look at life with my eyes, not a selfie stick.

[coffeecake]

Things that frighten me:

* Young (maybe ~2 y.o.?) child crying in his mother's arms while she is talking to a friend at the grocery. He paws at her until eventually, with a look of frustration, she absentmindedly hands him her phone. He quiets and begins swiping at the screen.

Instead of comforting him or paying attention to him, the parent passes this off to the smart phone. What is this teaching the child? Operant conditioning, as others have mentioned.

* 5 or 6 y.o. child continually tugging at her father's arm, trying to show him something. He basically ignores her, smiling at something on his phone. She eventually gives up.

I don't use a smartphone. Because I know I would get addicted. I read that some of you guys put your phones in the trunk when driving to resist temptation. I picked that up because I don't trust myself. And when I drive, all I see is people on the highway swiping at phones. Not promising.

[SamIAm]

Just finished reading this book and would highly recommend it on many fronts, but its specific refutation of our ability to multitask along with the science behind the addiction was enlightening.

http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062284068/a-deadly-wandering

We have a simple contract within our family, cell phones in the glove compartment when driving.

[Robbos]

All the data is there, peer-reviewed, comprehensive studies that show that texting while driving is the same as being two times over the legal limit. Other research has shown that drivers consistently over-estimate their abilities. So when the media runs a story about a distracted driver running down a pedestrian, people tell themselves that they are more skillful than that. I know, I've had arguments with people that contend that everyone else is an idiot, but they understand how to skillfully use their cellphone while driving. Go back 30 years and you could have the same conversation with someone that drives under the influence who over-estimates their abilities. But texting and talking while driving are neither stigmatized nor are they severely punished. One of the problems is that people are unlikely to self-report post-accident. So unlike a breathalizer it can be harder to prove the cause of distraction. When I came to after being taken out on a bike lane by a texting driver turning right without looking or indicating, I told the police that I saw him texting, and he admitted it. Would he have admitted it had I not told the cops? Oh, and his big fat fine for hospitalizing me and damaging my bike to the tune of $1300 because he had to stare at a small keyboard while driving in a residantial area? $100. Not what we would call a dissuasive fine. Best is that he never took ownership for it. ''Accidents happen'' was his response.
My wife and I now pass our time on the freeway guessing who is on their phone and 1) it is unbelievably common and 2) scary as hell. You can always see the driver who is doing sudden steering corrections, driving like, you guessed it, they are drunk. In a driving rain storm, already not my favorite driving conditions, a guy started creeping very fast into our lane, and only my honking got him back. Did that stop him? No, because it was clearly a very important message he was composing, more important that everyone else on the road, including my three year old daughter in the back seat. I find it distressing to see how these communication devices drive us further from one another, being a huge believer in the value of social capital and community. But as it happens, the biggest real danger right now is the resulting distraction. I tend to snort when I hear panicky messages about potential brain cancer coming from prolonged cell use (no conclusive studies yet) vs the concrete urgent dangers of distracted use. Oh, that and all that has previously been mentioned about the erosive effect on our concentration, civicisim, etc.. In my field we try to mitigate the dramatic effects of the obesity epidemic. I think not so far in the future we'll talk about digital addiction as an epidemic.

[bobswire]

Whats gotten crazy as well is that if you are one of the few people who don't carry a phone at all times, or don't have a smart phone, people actually get a bit angry. People act like it really messes with their day that they can't text me photos or videos or whatever people do. I always have to ask people to use old fashioned email, haha, because my phone only does call and text.

last week I had plans to meet someone at a bar at a specific time. I forgot my phone and rode downtown to the bar. i was 8 minutes late and my friend was not there. I didn't have my phone to call or text, but i assumed, well, i said id be here at a certain time, im only 8 minutes late, ill just have a beer and wait.

never met my friend. she was calling to find out where i was and when she got no answer... well, she left and assumed i wasn't coming... she didn't realize i ride a bike for transport and don't use technology to replace my senses. I still look at life with my eyes, not a selfie stick.

I get it, I had a smartphone for a bit but really didn't use it enough for the expense so I went back to a dumb phone. The only thing I really miss from the smartphone is the camera and ability to send a photo. Though in your case you blew it with that girl in not having your dumb phone with you.;)

[Robbos]

* 5 or 6 y.o. child continually tugging at her father's arm, trying to show him something. He basically ignores her, smiling at something on his phone. She eventually gives up.

Oh man, this sh-t is so depressing. I take my kid to the park after daycare, and I try to use it to practice mindfulness, that is, just being present and not being preoccupied with other stuff. I've seen so many cases of parents ignoring their kids pleading for attention as they are tied up looking at what ever constitutes as more important that their progeny. I'm very wary of being righteous, and my wife and I have to be vigilent not to reach for the temptation of the handheld device when our kid is around. Kids demand so much attention, and it is understandable that we'd have the impulse to seek refuge from the constant solicitation. But we really have to be careful, what long term effects does this screen addiction have on our relationship with them?
Watching a kid in a swing at the playground loose momentum while pleading for his dad to push him until he basically is at a standstill, with dad two feet behind him wrapped up in his screen and completely ignoring him. That is about one of the saddest things I've seen.

[Exonerv]

Are drivers getting high from behind-the-wheel phone use?
Source: CBS News, June 25, 2015

A new survey reveals drivers are ignoring warnings about the risks of distractions behind the wheel. AT&T found that as many as one in 10 drivers could be video-chatting on their drive home. It also found 61% admitted to texting and driving, a third check their email and 17% admitted to taking a steering-wheel selfie. Furthermore, 30% of drivers who admitted to checking Twitter behind the wheel said they were doing it all the time, despite the fact that 46 states prohibit texting and driving. Twenty-two percent of the people surveyed who access a social network while driving gave "addiction" as the reason. One researcher who worked on the study believes people get a high from using their cellphone behind the wheel similar to playing a slot machine. To see the full article, go to: www.cbsnews.com/

[witcombusa]

I'll bet anything that someone somewhere just read this post while driving and they are thinking it's about someone else - it's not - it's about you......it's about all of us.

dave


Not all of us Dave. There is nothing smart about a Smartphone.
I don't have one and life is the better for it.

[PacNW2Ford]

Excellent post, thank you. Yes the world is changing and it's not for the better.

Being on your phone puts you such a bubble that people become totally unaware of what's going on around them.

Just yesterday I wanted to withdraw a few bills from the local ATM. It's located in a store in a narrow alley. The alley was blocked by a woman standing sideways, texting or Facebooking on her phone. I approched her, I thought it was pretty obvious that I wanted to go to the ATM, and I though she will move on when she will see me. Well I stood beside her for one minute, one whole minute, before she even noticed me. No wonder a driver texting will not see a cyclist on the road.

It's not you. I witnessed a person on the phone crossing the street in front of a fire department Suburban with lights flashing, siren going and the staccato horn bursts. Completely oblivious, they just continued talking and walking.

[Dustin]

Smartphoneageddon will only be truly upon us when it is taken to its logical extreme: two people having sex while both remaining hypnotized by their own phones.

That might kill intimacy, but at least it would not kill other people like texting while driving.

[makoti]

Smartphoneageddon will only be truly upon us when it is taken to its logical extreme: two people having sex while both remaining hypnotized by their own phones.

You say that like it's a bad thing...

[fiamme red]

Yesterday was our daughters Birthday so we took the family to the movies to see Minions. When we walked up into the theater, almost every head was bent down looking at a phone while the screen was playing all the pre-feature ads. The theater was not full, but it was full enough to make all the bobbing lights extremely annoying. Then right before the lights go down and the coming attractions start to play, the theater runs a piece on not using cell phones during the movie and asking that they be put on vibrate and put them away. There are a good number of kids in the theater, and that was the point that a couple of moms start shooting pictures with their phones, red eye light and flashes going on to get pictures of their kids about to watch a movie. Once the movie started everyone had put their phones away, but you see lights bobbing on here and there throughout the movie up front. Then about halfway through the movie, a woman in the row in front of me and to my left pulls out her smartphone and wakes it up. In the dark theater, the light being thrown off from it is like a flashlight shining in my face. I can see it is not a not a call or text, she opens up some app and starts looking at something. Just as I am about to say something she shuts it down and puts it back in here purse. Twenty minutes later she does the same exact thing. This time I lean forward, and nicely, but with a little tone, asks her to shut it off because the light is blazingly bright in the dark. She grumbles something but puts it away, clearly not happy I said something to her about it.I went to see a movie a little earlier today. Despite the specific warning on the screen before it started, "Please turn off all electronic devices completely and close them NOW," a woman in front of me started checking her e-mail after an hour. She turned it off, then ten minutes later checked her e-mail again. I tapped on the back of her seat, and she did keep her phone off for the remainder of the movie, but not before giving me a dirty look.

[Peter P.]

Just finished reading this book and would highly recommend it on many fronts, but its specific refutation of our ability to multitask along with the science behind the addiction was enlightening.

http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062284068/a-deadly-wandering

We have a simple contract within our family, cell phones in the glove compartment when driving.

I was going to post to recommend that book. It explains in detail how we get addicted to our phones.

It is no different than drugs or alcohol but it is much more prevalent, and dangerous. Of course ask people and they say they "don't have a problem."