Situational awareness - with headphones on?

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.cheese.

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I sit here about to go out walking, at 7:30 at night. It's starting to get dark, and I plan to walk pretty far.

I'm walking to intentionally tire myself out so I can fall asleep tonight as I unfortunately slept all day.

I'm carrying a 2 ounce bottle of Fox labs, and a Smith & Wesson 642 - both items pocket carried in separate pockets.

In your opinion, given that I'd prefer to wear headphones as I walk, do you think situational awareness can be maintained with headphones on? Obviously, you give up hearing for the most part, but maintain your sight. Hearing being particularly important for situational awareness makes me think that no, it cannot be maintained or compensated for and that headphones become a gamble for which I have to weigh the cost and benefit of use.

But what do you think?

For the moment, I'll use them, but would like input so I can decide whether or not to use them in the future.
 
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You'll get whiplash from swiveling your head.

I think you know the answer, but just want to hear it from someone else. I'll be that someone else for you.

No, you cannot maintain situational awareness while wearing headphones. Even if you swivel your head, your brain is going to be concentrating on the music instead of processing what you are seeing.

stay safe.

skidmark
 
that's what I thought.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't being too narrow minded about situational awareness.
 
Centre Daily (Pennsylvania) -original newspaper link has died, this is from an indexing site, the story was from mid- August, 2006
===========================
"A teenage boy who was wearing headphones while skateboarding died after being struck by a passenger train, an Amtrak spokeswoman said." ... "The engineer was not able to stop the train, which was traveling about 80 mph."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=439545&nid=25
March 31, 2005 - 7:34am
GAITHERSBURG, Md. - A man wearing headphones was hit and killed by a freight train Monday.

Twenty-nine-year-old Daniel Snoddy was found by the tracks near the 11500 block of Game Preserve Road in Gaithersburg. Police say he died at the scene. (snip)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/05/pedestrian_killed_by_by_train.html
Pedestrian killed by by train north of Canby
Posted by The Oregonian May 03, 2007 17:51PM
A man wearing headphones and walking next to train tracks along Oregon 99E north of Canby was struck and killed by a Union Pacific Railroad train this afternoon. The victim was not identified.

Preliminary investigation by Oregon State Police and Union Pacific Railroad police indicates that the victim was walking with his back to the southbound freight train when he turned to his right and attempted to walk across the tracks. He was killed instantly.(snip)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I've seen more stories like this than I can remember in the past few years. Teenagers get killed in twos and threes walking along tracks whith headphones on. It's terrible.

Go to your favorite search engine (I like http://www.alltheweb.com/ , ymmv) and type in the words train headphones killed. When I did this on ATW I got 116,000 hits.

That many people can't hear a train coming, how good a chance does a mugger have of sneaking up on you?

hth,

lpl/nc
 
.cheese,

Respectfully, this is a common-sense consideration.

The question to be answered is "Would it be harder for me to know what is going on around me if I have music, audio book, etc blaring in my skull?"

The answer is yes... it would be harder. Not only do you have the lack of ability to hear anything else, you also have the distraction factor.


Now, I am not suggesting that one can never be distracted. We can't live our lives sitting in the corner watching the door and holding a Mossberg 590. We have to live, and life is often a distraction.

But answering your question, yeah... having the headphones on limits your situational awareness.



-- John
 
In an earlier discussion of this general topic several members of the forum said that they wore headphones and listened to music while shooting at the range. I consider such practices distracting and dangerous. They don't.
 
I suppose what I was getting at was whether or not you can compensate with your sight well enough.

However, it seems established that you can't really.
 
An Ipod is great for running on the treadmill at the gym, but as far as walking at night- you are leaving yourself at the mercy of perps:

a) they see you have head phones on
b) you are open for a blind side sucker punch, or attack with an object
 
Not reading whole thread, but here's a point to consider: Wearing headphones in a public place (particularly a deserted public place or while on the move) is a big fat sign saying "please rob/rape me, as I am totally unaware of my suroundings". If the headphones are white earbuds and lead into a pocket, there is an additional invisible sign visible only to criminals reading "And BTW, I have a $200-500 electronic device in my pocket that I don't really need and would gladly give you if you threaten me, knock me unconscious or butt-rape me".

In other words, wearing headphones not only lowers your awareness, but it lets EVERYONE KNOW that your awareness is low. Bad combination.
 
I would not wear the usual headphones.

The only thing I might consider would be a single mono earjack. One ear is free, but you still have a distraction.
 
Like jfruser just said, the best way to mitigate this is to only have only one ear occupied.

It helps a little. If you keep the volume low, it will help you context switch faster.

In my opinion, it is easier with "familiar" music used as background noise.
 
I semi-regularly walk/run/bike with headphone (or earpbuds on) but there are a few things that I do.

First off, I don't have the music anywhere near loud, just up enough to get past the ringing (I have a mild case of tinnitus, former occupational hazard). And secondly I *only* put on side in or on. This helps me overcome the wierdness factor of not being able to hear around me. yeah it leaves me a little sound deaf on one side, but I can hear well enough to feel reasonably safe.

But to each his own, I really don't feel that uncomfortable or situationally unaware anywhere.


Edit: ACK! couple hours late
 
The incident that convinced me to not wear anything in my ears happened about a year ago.

I was walking with my dear ol' dog, a little mutt who is long in tooth and short on hearing these days. She is pretty old and her hearing is pretty bad on one side and only a little bit better on the other.

We have walked the same beat for years and on that day, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I know all the local dogs and "hot" spots. This day I had my ipod on and just happened to be between songs....when I heard an odd and faint clickity sound coming from behind. I turned my head....to see a pit bull running full bore at us...by the time I saw it, it was only seconds away. The clicking noise was her claws on the asphalt. She wore no collar or tags. I had never seen this dog before, yet I could definitely see death and destruction in her eyes. Needless to say I was very alarmed. :what:

My old mutt never heard the pit coming either but, god bless her, she turned to stand her ground. My old mutt wouldnt have lasted thirty seconds.

I managed to get between her and the pit, and deployed my asp. I yelled sharply 'stop!" as aggressively as I could. The pit continued to steam roll on in and, as I prepared for mortal combat, I prayed for a chance to land a blow to the spine on that pit. That was my plan. I wasnt going to go for the head as that was probably going to be connected to me or my dog...and pit bull have a noggin' like a brick. My asp wouldnt do much damage there...but a blow to the spine might.

Strangely the pit pulled up to a complete stop about 10 feet away and just growled and showed teeth. I saw the devil that day in that pit's eyes.

Unfortunately, a nieghborhood cat who was in the area behind me somewhere decided just then to vacate the area...which the pit spotted right away and took after at full steam. Never saw the outcome of that but I am sure it would be bloody if that cat didnt get somewhere high above ground and fast!

Had I not been in-between songs just at that moment, I am completely sure I would have never heard or saw that pit coming until it was on top of us.
 
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Has anyone hear ever heard of "open" headphones?

I have a pair. Grado 80's. These are semi-high end headphones with amazing clarity. They are also open to create a more natural listening space, the music isn't all in the middle of your head. Anyway, they are open in that the speakers are covered by a mesh but not enclosed with hard plastic or rubber.

Music leaks out pretty easily and if you don't turn them way up you can carry on a pretty normal conversation. They are not for the airplane. Also, you don't have to turn them up as far since they are so clear.

They would not be perfect, but I would suggest them over plugging one ear. Plus I just like them for listening to music. The next level down Grado 60's are just a little over 50 bucks and sound way better than most earphones.
 
Things not to do in a public place

wear headphones/walkman/ipod
use mobile phone (esp.texting) /handheld game
read book
eat food that a stranger has given you
sleep (public transport)
etc.

I guess a lot of people assume that public places are safe but some of us ensure our surrounds are safe.
 
Not only will you be distracted by the music, you'll have one of your most important senses rendered useless and you'll have a $$$ music player to attract low lifes with.
 
I can't do it myself. I find that I'm always tensed for an attack from behind. I'm going to stay alert no matter what, but I'm so focused on what may be going on behind me that I stop paying attention to what I can actually see in front of me.
 
It can be maintained, but requires more effort. The effort often leaves for many once the headphones go on for whatever reason.
 
Ahhh... now you're getting into another one of my areas of interest. I highly recommend grabbing a pair of these. They're open-air, so they won't completely block out external sounds. They don't have the iPod "look" to them, so you'll be less of a magnet for the thieves. They're inexpensive. This ad shows them for $25, but I occasionally see them in the $12 to $15 range. And best of all, they sound absolutely great! They are on a par with other headphones costing $100 plus.

Love my music. Got to have a way for my awareness and my music to co-exist.
 
I found that wearing headphones in public made me too paranoid to enjoy the music- made me feel completely vulnerable.
 
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