Situational Awareness, 2013

[Jaguar]

I have to say I am not too surprised by this. http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Abs ... php#page-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A man standing on a crowded Muni train pulls out a .45-caliber pistol.

He raises the gun, pointing it across the aisle, before tucking it back against his side. He draws it out several more times, once using the hand holding the gun to wipe his nose. Dozens of passengers stand and sit just feet away - but none reacts.

Their eyes, focused on smartphones and tablets, don't lift until the gunman fires a bullet into the back of a San Francisco State student getting off the train.

Are we as a population so wrapped up in the latest gadgets that we cannot see a guy standing in the middle of a train car waving a gun around? Personally I don’t have a smartphone, just a plane old cell phone that can do text and make calls, I don’t believe I would ever be so wrapped up in it to miss a guy waving a .45 around and pointing it at people.

This is crazy.

[AlaskanInTexas]

Well I have to say that I probably wouldn't have noticed either. I am all for situational awareness, but if I am riding a train, I am first doing a quick scan to see if anything seems out of place around me, and if satisfied all is well, I am going to get something done. I may reengage periodically as people come on the train, but I am not going to be watching peoples' every movement.

[Abraham]

You couldn't give me a smart phone.

I've heard people say they couldn't get through the day without their smart phone. They're taking over the world.

I find the smart phone phenomenon disturbing to say the least.

There are only a few of us non-smart phone folks.

We will be the ones left behind when the smart phoners are ultimately hauled away in the Mother Ship...

[Maxwell]

Smart Phone does not equal Smart Person...

Like others there is a chance I would not have noticed this even though I try to be aware of movements around me, especially in a crowd. I'd like to think that a movement as overt as pointing, gun or no gun, at something or someone would have been noticed but I may be fooling myself.

[Pecos]

I see people in that state all the time glued to there smart phone. The guy that was shot at probably never knew???
Unbelievable!!!!

[G0C]

It would have never happened if people were reading newspapers on the train like the good old days.

[cb1000rider]

You couldn't give me a smart phone.

Bad things:
1) They're expensive.
2) They force you to be always connected. Imagine a fancy pager. Tech companies get a lot more work out of the employees who have operational jobs and smart phones.
3) They can attract the wrong kind of attention - see all the IPhone waiting line robberies.
4) They're an easy escape and means to tune out.

Good things:
1) I can always find it, even if it gets stolen.
2) I'm much more comfortable dealing with LEOs as it's a great discreet recorder / video capture device.
3) I have it monitoring my home. I can sit at my desk and watch any of the 4 entry points to the yard.
4) It's also a tool - I can do vehicle diagnostics with a little extra hardware and I pay 1/10th of it costs to buy specialty diagnostics.
5) It's a map.
6) It's a backup navigation device in the plane - I can look up airports, airport diagrams, and even do navigation if I had to.

Best thing:
Curious George on video. If you're a parent, you know what I mean.

[TheCytochromeC]

You couldn't give me a smart phone.

Bad things:
1) They're expensive.
2) They force you to be always connected. Imagine a fancy pager. Tech companies get a lot more work out of the employees who have operational jobs and smart phones.
3) They can attract the wrong kind of attention - see all the IPhone waiting line robberies.
4) They're an easy escape and means to tune out.

Good things:
1) I can always find it, even if it gets stolen.
2) I'm much more comfortable dealing with LEOs as it's a great discreet recorder / video capture device.
3) I have it monitoring my home. I can sit at my desk and watch any of the 4 entry points to the yard.
4) It's also a tool - I can do vehicle diagnostics with a little extra hardware and I pay 1/10th of it costs to buy specialty diagnostics.
5) It's a map.
6) It's a backup navigation device in the plane - I can look up airports, airport diagrams, and even do navigation if I had to.

Best thing:
Curious George on video. If you're a parent, you know what I mean.

Also, when you don't understand what an old person is talking about, you can look it up. My great-uncle tells me that all the time. "Have you heard of (insert something 50 years before my time)" To which I reply, "Nope. You really thought I'd know that?" He'll say, "Well look this up in that fountain of knowledge on that thing that's glued to your hand."

Smart phones are like guns, they bring out the true character of the individual wielding them.

[Running Arrow Bill]

I have a real (low tech) "smart Phone." Numbers 0 to 9, on, off, go. I don't use it unless an emergency. All of the "smart phone" people (wife included) are the 21st century zombies that somehow can't do without them...enough of my biased rant...lol. As a Licensed Pilot, I am frequently "periscoping" my field to observe anything "out of place"...then I have my backup tool...lol.

[Vol Texan]

Smart phones are like guns, they bring out the true character of the individual wielding them.

This:

Does alcohol make you a bad person, or a good person? Neither - but it does reveal the inner you.

Same thing with smart phones, or anything else that we find ourselves obsessed with. If we allow ourselves to become so involved in one thing so much that it becomes a part of our persona, then shame on us.

When I see a person wrapped up in their smart phone (and unable to hold a normal conversation without distracting themselves with it constantly), I find them to be as irritating as any of the following:

• The NFL fan who eats, lives, sleeps, and dies by their obsession with the sport to the extent that their mood is altered by the performance of 'their team' over the past weekend (all the while not knowing who their two Senators are and what's going on in the world).
• The gun fanatic who walks around the mall with NRA hat, tactical 'shoot me first' vest, 5-11 pants, and a CHL badge, while carrying around a copy of Guns & Ammo magazine.
• The Facebook-obsessed person who constantly talks about the 'relationships' they have with all these 'friends' that they've never met, explaining why they have a better world view than I do because of these relationships with people in other countries.

The smart phone is a tool, nothing more, nothing less. It's the same as our guns, or our cars, or our brandy (or even this forum!). Let's just remember to have a real life outside of them, and not let our obsessions with them be a defining characteristic in our personality.

[chasfm11]

You couldn't give me a smart phone.

I've heard people say they couldn't get through the day without their smart phone. They're taking over the world.

I find the smart phone phenomenon disturbing to say the least.

There are only a few of us non-smart phone folks.

We will be the ones left behind when the smart phoners are ultimately hauled away in the Mother Ship...

I don't have a Smart Phone either but mine is strictly a cost issue. I just don't see the value in having one versus the monthly charges. Sure, it would be nice. I think Smart Phones, like iPads can do a lot of neat things. But I can do all of those things other ways and I don't need to be doing them on public streets, etc.

I have to admit that at one point in my life, I commuted into Phila an hour and a half on the train each way. I caught more than a few cat naps because mine was the last stop on the train on the way out and the train terminated in the city were I got off. But that was a different age. I was mugged in Phila but I didn't worry as much about crime then as I do today. Maybe I was just younger and foolish. No way would I get on a train today and not pay attention to my fellow passengers.

[jmra]

If I didn't have a smart phone I wouldn't get to spend nearly as much time with you guys as I do.

[ghostrider]

If I didn't have a smart phone I wouldn't get to spend nearly as much time with you guys as I do.

And you would miss us :-)

[Zen]

Even this thread is more focused on smartphones than on a gunman on a train. That says volumes...

[TheCytochromeC]

Even this thread is more focused on smartphones than on a gunman on a train. That says volumes...

It truly does. So there's a guy on a train displaying a gun, big deal. I use to say, "I've got a gun." around people in situations like this when I was younger and very few ever noticed. But to hear a WWII veteran say, "Here, let me just take a picture of the part with the phone and I'll email it to you. Text me when you get it." will always be more of a spectacle.