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iPhone? More like CrackPhone. Depending on my stress levels, I have a hard time going more than 20 minutes without checking TTAG on my iPhone, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. (It’s only a matter of time before blogging is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.) But I draw the line at walking. When I’m walking, I’m not texting, surfing or conversing. I’m looking. ‘Cause you never know when you’re going to bump into a 600-pound bear. Or someone who sees your iPhone and implements the old Russian adage: what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine. If I want to go into cyberspace on the go, I find a place where I can put my back against the wall and divide my time between electronic and real world stimuli. Situational awareness. Yeah, it’s that important. [h/t Tyler Kee]

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14 COMMENTS

  2. “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Tribune.”

    Sometimes copyright protection irritates the hell out of me.

  3. What’s “texting?” Is that the thing that kids do with their thumbs? Is it anything like sexting? Does sexting involve sex?

    I’m so out of the loop.

  4. I listened to a story yesterday about how oblivious people are when playing with their phones. It has become common for “bad guys” to walk in the opposite direction from you and reach out and snatch the Ipad or Iphone right out of your hands. By the time the phonaholic drifts back to reality, the perpetrator is gone. This is crime is so common, that it has a name, “apple picking”.

  5. Yup situational awareness, it is very important. Think about how many accidents are caused by people texting or checking smart phones while driving. Can we ban smart phones? You know they are killing people! 🙂
    I am addicted to mine but I usually don’t get to deep into it while walking driving etc. Unless I am at a stop light or parked, or maybe wondering around my office where my awareness level can drop with out issue.

  6. Carrying a handgun should raise everyone’s awareness level to the max. I tend to notice a lot more going on now that I carry. Pay attention folks, it could save your life! 🙂

    • Bingo!!

      Imagine, for a moment, you’re a street agent. You’re looking around for the low-hanging fruit. These days, there’s no shortage of them. The easy pickin’s. People who are oblivious to anything going on outside their personal space bubble.

      Nobody who carries acts like that.

  9. Texting while walking. It’s caused more than a few pedestrians to wander into the street and get killed by passing motorists. Texting is to situational awareness as Bill Maher is to reasonable thought.

    • There was a great story about 2-3 years ago about a 14-yr old girl (this was in Staten Island) who was texting while walking, and stepped into an open manhole – crash! She was suing the City of New York for not having sufficient barricades around the manhole. How totally oblivious do you have to be to not notice a large, open hole in the street where you are walking? Condition White. Talk about a mugger’s dream.

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