Mobile phones are jeopardising our safety, but not how you'd think

Mobile phones are giving us tunnel vision.

Whilst taking the lift downstairs at work, I realised that I’d not even noticed that it had stopped and a man had gotten in. The worst part is, my phone is only functional on WiFi so I wasn’t actually doing anything of importance and no one was evening texting me – I was aimlessly staring at a screen to keep myself busy for the 30 seconds it takes to get from my floor to the next.

This got me thinking – how much are we really missing by focusing on our phones? Would I have noticed if the man needed my help? Or if I’d dropped something? Probably not. And, worse still, would I have noticed if he was a threat to my safety?

I often wonder about how people manage to remember such specific details about people’s faces when it comes to police sketching – how do people remember faces they’ve seen for the first time? Imagine trying to create an image having not actually seeing someone’s face. Would you be able to describe an attacker by just seeing their reflection through your phone?

Whilst driving, we know that it only takes seconds of taking your eyes off the road for something terrible to happen, but why do we not think about how distracted we are in other circumstances?

Almost all of us have been in a situation where we’ve missed something due to phone distraction. We’ve bumped into things, walked past someone we knew, had to rewind part of a film – and all of these are pretty harmless. But, sometimes, missing something can be life-changing.

We’re told, as kids, to look left, right and left again before crossing the road in order to ensure that nothing has come round the corner in the time it took to complete the sequence, but now we’re just looking down. According to a March 2017 report from the US Governors Highway Safety Association, there has been an increase in pedestrian deaths due to mobile phone distractions. We’re partaking in a real-life version of Frogger because we’re busy playing Frogger.

Spotting potential dangers is not exactly easy, you can’t predict the outcome of any situation. But, you’re far more likely to be able to see harm coming when you’re actually paying attention.