I'm not talking about the responsibility an adult would feel for a child. I'm talking about one stranger to another.
Every day I cross multiple city streets, some more busy than others.
One thing about the city: people don't always wait for the little walking man before they cross. (When you're told to wait 60 seconds, and there are clearly no cars coming...you don't want to wait. It can be rather exciting--a real life frogger!)
So here I am, in the capital city, and everyone (ok, most people) is multi-tasking work responsibilities and a social life. (Or they're trying to get to the next level of candy crush. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, though.) I am guilty of checking my phone, but only when I'm on the sidewalk. If I'm about to cross the street, my phone is down. If I am near the street, and I look at my phone, my feet stay firmly planted. Why? Because we are a society that operates on autopilot.
We're zombies! We are in the habit of checking our phones/devices when we're walking, talking, eating, that it is "nothing." However, there is a difference between walking and talking, and walking, talking, and checking for oncoming traffic.
A while back, I discovered that when I walked--or even made a motion to walk--the person next to me at the crosswalk did, too, although she didn't even look up from her phone. She was trusting her peripheral view of my movement that it would be safe to cross. ...I had to pull her back from the oncoming car. (That's why I didn't cross. I leaned forward to check for cars, she took it as a cue to cross.)
Having learned that lesson, I now make sure to be extra careful with my movements when crossing the street. Yesterday I had to stop in the median, because while I would have had time to cross--I knew the pace I would have to take to do it--the three others that moved with me were not paying attention. I did not want to be responsible for their accident. I stayed, they stayed. One guy--a tourist, he was looking at his surroundings and not his phone--crossed with us when he saw we were all going to, but he made it to the far side first. He was on the other side of me, away from the zombies, that his movements didn't even register with them. I was a little jealous.
We're a society that operates so much on autopilot, that we don't even pay attention to where we're going. We're great multi-taskers that we miss where we are right now. We're too busy with--in the grand scheme of things--inconsequential things, that we miss kids growing up, parents growing older, struggles our friends are going through.
Relationships with other humans are dying because so many people are in such captivating relationships with their technology. Don't get me wrong. Technology is great. When you're talking with another human. Just sharing random videos, cat memes, or recipes you're never actually going to try...that's not healthy.
Try to be the reason someone smiles today. You. Not what you share online. Send someone a personal note. Give someone a call. Bake something for your neighbor, and then go meet them. They're what's real. Actual human interaction is what is going to make you feel good about the day. (I don't just mean saying hi to the person at the checkout counter at the grocery either. Granted, maybe if you're accustomed to self-checkout and you go to an actual cashier...I'd give you points for that. Just a couple.)
Let's turn off autopilot and actually live. Even if only for today.
Every day I cross multiple city streets, some more busy than others.
One thing about the city: people don't always wait for the little walking man before they cross. (When you're told to wait 60 seconds, and there are clearly no cars coming...you don't want to wait. It can be rather exciting--a real life frogger!)
So here I am, in the capital city, and everyone (ok, most people) is multi-tasking work responsibilities and a social life. (Or they're trying to get to the next level of candy crush. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, though.) I am guilty of checking my phone, but only when I'm on the sidewalk. If I'm about to cross the street, my phone is down. If I am near the street, and I look at my phone, my feet stay firmly planted. Why? Because we are a society that operates on autopilot.
We're zombies! We are in the habit of checking our phones/devices when we're walking, talking, eating, that it is "nothing." However, there is a difference between walking and talking, and walking, talking, and checking for oncoming traffic.
A while back, I discovered that when I walked--or even made a motion to walk--the person next to me at the crosswalk did, too, although she didn't even look up from her phone. She was trusting her peripheral view of my movement that it would be safe to cross. ...I had to pull her back from the oncoming car. (That's why I didn't cross. I leaned forward to check for cars, she took it as a cue to cross.)
Having learned that lesson, I now make sure to be extra careful with my movements when crossing the street. Yesterday I had to stop in the median, because while I would have had time to cross--I knew the pace I would have to take to do it--the three others that moved with me were not paying attention. I did not want to be responsible for their accident. I stayed, they stayed. One guy--a tourist, he was looking at his surroundings and not his phone--crossed with us when he saw we were all going to, but he made it to the far side first. He was on the other side of me, away from the zombies, that his movements didn't even register with them. I was a little jealous.
We're a society that operates so much on autopilot, that we don't even pay attention to where we're going. We're great multi-taskers that we miss where we are right now. We're too busy with--in the grand scheme of things--inconsequential things, that we miss kids growing up, parents growing older, struggles our friends are going through.
Relationships with other humans are dying because so many people are in such captivating relationships with their technology. Don't get me wrong. Technology is great. When you're talking with another human. Just sharing random videos, cat memes, or recipes you're never actually going to try...that's not healthy.
Try to be the reason someone smiles today. You. Not what you share online. Send someone a personal note. Give someone a call. Bake something for your neighbor, and then go meet them. They're what's real. Actual human interaction is what is going to make you feel good about the day. (I don't just mean saying hi to the person at the checkout counter at the grocery either. Granted, maybe if you're accustomed to self-checkout and you go to an actual cashier...I'd give you points for that. Just a couple.)
Let's turn off autopilot and actually live. Even if only for today.
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