And out come all these words
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By
JUSTIN LEE of RI 3G'09.
If you don't like it that's fine, but shooshooaway!
I SOSO LOVE LISTENING TO MUSIC!
Warning: Don't fall asleep reading my blog.
Are Singaporeans oblivious to the world around them?
Posted on: Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Posted at: 7:14 PM
I feel that Singaporean teens should not keep their attention glued onto their handphones or music players, especially when walking.
Like the article states, if they are always engrossed with their devices, they face a greater risk of accidents when crossing the road. This is because they are too absorbed into what they are doing and are totally oblivious to the world around them. Studies find that distractions from such devices are the major causes of accidents around the world.
Also, text-messaging or listening to music can be at any other time other than when moving around. For example it would be perfectly safe to listen to music while on a bus, but on the other hand if music is blasted while walking you may be in the way of someone in a wheelchair or an incoming bicycle coming from behind you.
In a 'how alert are you?' test conducted by a Sunday Times team on 60 people either text-messaging or listening to music, reporters either delibrately 'walked into' the pedestrians or rang a bicycle bell behind them to see if they moved away. Out of those listening to music, 40% failed to hear the bell and did not get out of the way while out of those text-messaging, 17% bumped into the reporters while 20% dodged them at the last minute. This is quite appalling as this proves most of them were fully engrossed with what they were doing.
However, even with all those statistics, it is not completely a bad thing teens are engrossed with music. Music inspires creativity and as many interviewed teens say, it relieves boredom. However, they have to be careful enough to notice people or cars going their way while walking.
All in all, I think that youngsters should keep alert about the world around them than forever be glued to their handphones.
On Deaf to the world by Shuli Sudderuddin, Huang Huifen, Kimberly Lim and Teo Wan GekTaken from: The Sunday Times, Singapore - March 29, 2009Labels: English