No wonder situational awareness is a lost skill. We gaze at our mobile devices while we walk, work, and eat.

Situational awareness is the ability to identify, process, and comprehend what is happening around us, at that moment. We have chosen to make ourselves unaware of what is going on around us, and our technology is turning us into robots.

Why is it that we don’t pay attention?

It seems as though we want to be centered on ourselves all of the time. Why do you think selfies are so popular? It’s because we want to portray the life that we want others to see of us, every single day.

Sophomore Grace Pritchett says she constantly sends out selfies of herself and others because she says, “I’m bored.” In her free time in between classes she is on Snapchat viewing and sending stories.

It seems second hand to turn to our mobile devices and plug in those earbuds. However, when we do that, we see and notice less of our surroundings. It  matters to pay attention and be mindful.

Cathy Marrero is a victim of situational awareness loss. She is the woman who accidentally fell into a shopping mall fountain while texting. Marrero’s plunge earned her 1.5 million hits on YouTube.  The cause of her embarrassment was her inability to be aware of what was around her, and, in this case, it was straight in front of her. There are countless other examples on line of the same foolish behavior.

Texting and driving can be a fatal failure of situational awareness.  It’s the number one cause of death among teenagers. According to a study by Cohen Children’s Medical Center, more than 3,000 students die each year in crashes caused by texting while driving. Eleven teens die every day as a result of texting while driving.

Whether you are in a car by yourself or with a group, its critical to be aware with what’s going on in and around the vehicle at all times.  Students who can’t stop touching their phones can (1) turn off cellular data, (2) put the phone in a glove box out of reach, (3) download an app that stops receiving texts while driving.

In addition to staying alive, being mindful will help every student and employee.  Ellen Langer is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. Langer’s research of nearly four decades reveals the benefits to paying attention based on being mindful.

“It’s easier to pay attention. You remember more of what you’ve done. You’re more creative. You’re able to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. You avert the danger not yet arisen. You like people better, and people like you better, because you’re less evaluative. You’re more charismatic,” said Langer in the article.

Take the time to notice what’s around you and listen to what others are saying because it’s better to be mindful than mindless.

“Life consists of moments… So if you make the moment matter, it all matters. You can be mindful, you can be mindless. You can win, you can lose. The worst case is to be mindless and lose,” a quote from Ellen Langer.