Deaf to the world...

Cell phones and music players are killing us. They increase the risks of accidents. This is especially worrying as many youths are very active users of cell phones and music players, even when crossing the road. Youngsters absorbed in their cell phones or music players face greater risk of accidents as they are distracted. What is even more worrying is the fact that these youths have a very indifferent attitude towards this, and are willing to risk themselves getting into accidents as they do not want to feel bored. Some even feel that accidents are not caused by these devices, but instead the fault of drivers.
Youths are always using their cell phones or music players wherever they go. It is as if they cannot live without them. They are always absorbed with their cell phones and music players, which is dangerous as they are not aware of the dangers around them. However, these do not stop youths at all from not using them. “Sometimes I can’t hear bicycles coming from behind me but I don’t think it’s dangerous. I’d be bored without my iPod,” said 25 year old Esni Abimanju.
This is dangerous and increases the risks of accidents. President of the National Safety Council of Singapore even said “plugging into music will certainly increase the risk of accidents”. He went on to say that it is because our attention will be distracted. As you can see, cell phones and music players increase the risks of accidents. Our reaction time is reduced by 35 percent when we send messages while driving. An experiment conducted by the Sunday Times found that out of 30 pedestrians sending messages, five bumped into reporters while six dodged them only at the last minute and out of 30 pedestrians who were listening to music, 12 failed to hear the bicycle bell and did not get out of the way when reporters cycled past them. Furthermore, these pedestrians were unconcerned and unapologetic. As seen from the statistics above, it is clear enough that people who are absorbed with their cell phones and music players are in great risk of getting into an accident. Imagine if the above pedestrians were absorbed with their devices when crossing the road and are not aware of an oncoming car. The outcome would be disastrous.
However, I am aware that some of you, especially youths, would like to rebut my argument and say that it is not your fault if you were to get into an accident. Polytechnic student Seah Jia Hao said that if he cannot hear a car coming, it is the driver’s responsibility to look out for him because he is in front of him. Even if what he said was true, I would like to just say why risk getting into an accident? If you make out of it alive then it is not so bad, but what if you don’t?
Some of you might even argue and say that you will feel bored without using your cell phones or music players. Miss Farhana said that she knows that listening to music at high volume is dangerous but she will not stop listening at high volume because it just sets the mood. As I have said before, why risk yourself getting into an accident? Personally, I value my life more than music. I am sure that many others would share the same view as me.
Thus I would like to just end by saying that it is clear that youths, or more generally people, who are absorbed in their cell phones or music players face a greater risk of accidents on the road. There are many statistics to prove my point. These devices are meant to help us, not be detrimental for us. We can use them, but do not use them too much or carelessly especially on the road. If you do, you might just end up on the obituary section of the daily news paper.