介绍:
【特别感谢热心听友“Maggie 欣欣”帮忙听写本篇文稿】
Heyang: We’ve all done it: when a conversation gets boring, we pull out our smartphone and start playing with it. This is been called phubbing. But apparently, Chinese teenagers are taking it to the next level: as a new survey found that 60% of teenage pedestrians are on their smartphone as they are walking in the streets. It is okay?
Guys, what’s going on here?
Ryan: Oh goodness. Let me tell you all about it, okay? A survey released by non-profit organization Safe Kids Worldwide with the support from FEDEX, So it bit sounded like Fedex but I didn’t want say that because there’s a delivering company called Fedex, found teenagers are often distracted by the use of electronic devices while walking, which can cause traffic accidents. So it’s been revealed that 93.1% of students surveyed in a survey possess smart phones. 60.9% of those surveyed said they got distracted by the use of electronic devices while walking. And nearly half (45%) of the respondents admitted that they themselves or their friends and family have nearly experienced pedestrian clashes while using smartphones, tablets or gaming devices. So here are, you know, overwhelming amount of these people that were surveyed, the students have phones, and more than half of them are getting distracted while walking using these devices at the same time. Another question I would like to ask is like those who do drugs these students or even, you know, younger adults that do drugs was the number of people that use like phones when they are doing that on a scooter or in a car, also a good thing to look into I think.
Heyang: Oh that’s very interesting.
Niu honglin: And actually I don’t think it’s limited to teenagers I think adults also do that too. They also walk and drive and do everything with their cellphone and actually in some metro places and malls they have this warning, like saying you should not use your phone when you’re on the elevator or when you’re walking. They have this because more and more people are doing that. That’s why they’re warning people not to.
Ryan: Yeah. Okay so let’s talk a little bit more about the survey coz I’m sure some questions are being asked about that. So basically they surveyed 1000 middle school students on their pedestrian habits. The students came from 10 schools in Beijing. Apart from that, the kid’s safety advocacy is measuring the risk of these students walking through school zones. And you know, a lot of these distractions, you probably say, ’what are they doing’ Well of course maybe they’re using like, messaging friends, they might also be listening to music and making phone calls.
Heyang: Yeah and it’s really interesting that you guys keep on saying,’ all these kids are being distracted or adults are being distracted when guys, I don’t agree with you at all. That sounds like you’re shifting the responsibility of walking safely yourself to digital device? No way! It’s you putting this on yourself. Nobody is distracting you. It’s because you don’t have the ability to say no to stuff when you should have. That is my opinion and these guys are kind of shaking their heads in front of me so they don’t necessarily agree with me. But they get a chance for their rebuttal right after the short break.
The part that I feel very passionate about is I don’t think you’ve got anybody to blame or to take this as a distraction. It is just you putting your safety second (Ryan: Yeah) and putting your digital device first. What is wrong with you?
Ryan: Oh yeah~ I got some information for you, Heyang.(Heyang: Yeah~) Okay, so, pedestrian injuries among 15-17 year olds account for 37.24% of all pedestrian injuries among children 17 and under. So I mean, I would say that these are kids; these are tiny kids and so much of them are this group basically 15-17 year-olds. They are not adults so I don’t believe we should hold them to the standard of adults. They are still very much kids and I think there’s needs to be some parent guidance here and that is you know, like when I was a kid I would run across the street like a mad man I could even think I would dodge traffic like I was invincible, you know. Even probably well on to 15 if my mom hadn’t said, you know, lay down the ground working. She said Ryan look both ways before you cross this street. Always wait till you have a clear, you know, no problem zone to cross. You know these kind of things, but basically we’re seeing a lot of these injuries are happening with kids.
Niu honglin: I agree with you when you were saying they need some guidance and they need someone to tell them they’re not doing it right. But you have to know their reasons when they say they do not want to put their cellphones down it’s because maybe they’re listening to a song that hasn’t come to an end and they say they wanted to keep company with their friends in the internet and they don’t want to make the other party unhappy and the third reason which I find a little ridiculous is that they do not…they simply do not want to stop playing.
Ryan: Right you said you find this ridiculous. Well I can’t speak for China; I don’t know the specific rules but you’re not considering an adult in the U.S. until you’re of 18 years of age. So these are kids. And of course they are ridiculous. Kids do ridiculous stuff. They don’t know any better and what I’m saying here to both of you but especially Heyang I’m pointing my finger at you, girl (Heyang: What’s up?) I’m saying that you can’t hold them to the standard of adults. I think if this was a different survey and we found that these were actually people who were considered adults. I would agree with you. But these kids need guidance and basically tablets are more available now than ever and kids are getting them. So parents need to join the current situation we’re living in right now and be able to tell their kids, ’Hey, while you’re walking, put that phone away.
Heyang: Yeah, I think it’s interesting you make that distinction, Ryan. But I just don’t think a teenager of 17 years old or an adult of 18 years old are that different. I just feel that for these…Okay when it comes to legality I have to agree with you, Ryan. But when it comes to using your smartphone and ditch it when you should so you can stay alive and don’t walk into a tree or get hit by a car or walk into a manhole and fall into whatever stuff and you could lose your life then I don’t think that it is an excuse to say that I just want to stay connected. That’s just not good enough.
Niu honglin: Well, I would like to take a little step back and say that maybe it’s because when they’re still kids when they started to…( Heyang: Teenagers! We are talking about teenagers now!)Yeah, I’m trying to say when they’re still kids and they don’t know how to see the world. They don’t know how to think about things. Maybe their parents didn’t tell them about the devices because they don’t have it back then. And now they have this and maybe they don’t have a right way of thinking things and seeing things now.
