It is time we got rid of those ear plugs and headphones and listen to our surroundings again and this is also a good safety advice
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Wearing earphones of any description and listening to music or even podcasts tunes you out and you are no longer aware of your surroundings and puts you in danger in a variety of ways.
In traffic:
Whether you walk or, and this is probably worse, cycle, not being aware of things around you, and one can see this every day with pedestrians and cyclists, puts you in mortal danger, literally.
In some places, such as NYC, it is now illegal to walk across the road with earphones in your ears and you can get arrested for jaywalking even if you happen to cross on a zebra crossing and with the light being green.
As said already, the hundreds of cyclists that we see each and every day riding their bikes, in traffic, and elsewhere, with the iPods or other music players going put themselves in serious and mortal danger by going so.
In general:
If you walk with earphones listening to music or whatever you make yourself vulnerable to an attack also as you will be entirely unaware of your surroundings. However, being aware of your surroundings is the best defense against muggings and worse.
For your own safety alone you should be aware of your surroundings at all time. But, being plugged in all the time you also don't see the good things going on around you and have no connection with Nature either.
People also jog or walk in parks with earplugs in and music blaring, often so loud that one can actually hear it.
Why, pray, go for a stroll in the park when you want to listen to your own music and not the that which Nature provides by way of sounds. The babbling brook, the song of birds, the humming of the bees, is much better a music that that which any device can provide for us.
So, let's tune out and plug in; plug into Nature and our surroundings.
© 2013
