Think about a time when you failed to notice something around you because your attention was focused elsewhere. if someone pointed it out, were you surprised that you hadn’t noticed it right away?

Human focus and attention can sometimes be easily lost, especially when distracted by certain stimuli, like phones. When that happens, it is not abnormal for situations to happen because our senses, and brains, were not one hundred percent focused on our surroundings and what was happening around us. This division of attention, or loss of focus, may result in fatal, or pretty severe consequences.

There was this time when I was walking down the street, at first paying full attention to all my surroundings. The pedestrian walkway was cluttered with people and with literal bumps and holes in it. But, since I was paying attention to where I was going, I knew I could manouver without a problem. However, at some point my phone pinged and of course, I took it out. At that moment, my senses, and especially my brain, became distracted, and now I was only half paying attention to the road, and half to my cellphone. I did not realize that as I was walking, I was coming close to the dividing edge between the street and the pedestrian walkway, and if it had not been for a woman behind me who saw me and realized what was going on, I might have stepped out into the street and gotten hit by an oncoming car. To say the least, I was more than shocked and ever since I have not taken my cellphone out as I walk, even if someone is caling me or texting me. I know that I would have never gotten to that situation if I had been first focusing on walking and then, as I arrived at a safe place, texted the other person.

answer; observing;

answer; empathy;