We all see this everyday with people multi-tasking and the levels of disruption leading to harm, but for the most part that’s as far as it seems to get.  We are living in an era of rapidly evolving technologies and yet nobody wants to address this, but rather we just hear complaints.  How much information can we handle when we are on the go.  This article talks about people walking into telephone poles and other examples, which we have all seen and experienced.  I have too, who hasn’t and it is not just limited to driving. 

We all see what we consider the ultimate “rude” cell phone user that doesn’t take into consideration that there are others in a restaurant and their entire focus is the phone conversation, and they are loud, as some still feel a cell phone is similar to a bull horn too.  Multi tasking is a very interesting topic these days and now we have devices entering the picture with healthcare, do they disrupt and demand our attention, you bet they do.  So now let’s add on some biometric monitoring devices that also demand our attention, and these we are going to be held accountable for, never mind doing our job or driving our car, this is our health and you need to stop everything you are doing at the moment and address these alerts!  What we have here is a lack of balance and proper implementations of devices that report data.  Are you going to walk into a telephone pole to answer a text message from your wellness coach that wants information?  We all know that when we receive a message there’s a sense of urgency that is tied to the message.  Now with biometric monitoring entering the picture, will this cause us to walk into more telephone poles too, as we already have the cell phone activity going? 

Many of the companies that make these devices show little concern here, as some have limited venture capital funds available and need to put some dollars on the books to stay in business, so their primary marketing focus is sales.  Certainly products that help and give us information are totally a bad thing, but it is how we use them and how they fit into our life styles.  I have experienced this already at a Target store with an employee so wrapped up with his device, he completely was incoherent of me standing there as a customer.  When he finished, he stood in front of me for over 3 minutes and re-arranged bottles on the shelves, stood right in front of me and didn’t even notice I was a customer looking for product on the shelf, distraction and disruption at work.  We all know the story of the pilots who missed their city, again distraction at work, and this does happen.  Distraction is also getting in the way of healthcare reform too.

Is Distraction Getting in the Way of HealthCare Reform?

Why does this happen?  We want and need the data for financially related decision at any cost.  I like technology and live and breath it to a degree, so perhaps this is why I felt compelled to address this situation.  Our Congress, well they don’t participate here and thus they may only experience a little of this, but what they are prescribing for the rest of us is total disruption and they don’t even get it as they are for the most part non-participants.  I have often said to outfit members with some biometric monitoring themselves so they could experience this first hand, the only way things get done and knowledge is shared. 

“We make laws” and don’t have time to participate, we know what is best for the country?  Is this what we are hearing today?  I kind of seems that way.  I would love to see a session of Congress with members getting text messages to get up and move around, having to answer the messages and so on.  Could they function this way and create laws at the same time?  Anybody got an answer on that one?   

Fitbit Wireless Device Monitors your Daily Activity and Movements Released

Yet, this is what they are prescribing for us?  Most who read here have seen my comments to this effect here and I’m not trying to pick, but darn if they don’t participate, how in the world do they know what they are prescribing for the rest of us?  We are all trying to do the right thing but as constituents if we can’t get our leaders to experience what is being touted for the rest of us, where do we go from here?  Again, I would like to see sessions of Congress, working along as they do and see how well they can multi-task.  We all talk about this, but again it comes back to hands on experience and without our leaders tapping in here to see what it is all about, we are lost.  It is going to take the House 3 years as an example to go wireless?  Huh?  You see where the priorities lie.

House of Representatives Going Wireless – Slated to Take 3 Years And Could Have Some Real Healthcare Management Benefits for Members

So How is it that our leaders get to skirt around what they are prescribing for the rest of us?  Anybody have any answers or clues here?  BD

SAN FRANCISCO — On the day of the collision last month, visibility was good. The sidewalk was not under repair. As she walked, Tiffany Briggs, 25, was talking to her grandmother on her cellphone, lost in conversation.

Distracted driving has gained much attention lately because of the inflated crash risk posed by drivers using cellphones to talk and text.

But there is another growing problem caused by lower-stakes multitasking — distracted walking — which combines a pedestrian, an electronic device and an unseen crack in the sidewalk, the pole of a stop sign, a toy left on the living room floor or a parked (or sometimes moving) car.

Cognitive psychologists, neurologists and other researchers are beginning to study the impact of constant multitasking, whether behind a desk or the wheel or on foot. It might stand to reason that someone looking at a phone to read a message would misstep, but the researchers are finding that just talking on a phone takes its own considerable toll on cognition and awareness.

Driven to Distraction - Pedestrians, Too, Are Distracted by Cellphones - Series - NYTimes.com

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