Distractions And Distracts Research Paper

The Greek forces won the Trojan War. The story of the war is a cornerstone of Greek legend, and pervaded Greek literature and culture. Though the evidence for the Trojan War as historical fact is scarce, it was a formative event in Greek cultural memory, producing some of the classical world’s most famous heroes and narratives. The War was won, Helen was retrieved from Paris, whose violation of ξενία was redressed, the heroes attained the κλέος that many of them fought for – and yet the positive outcomes of the Trojan War are difficult to grasp. For the victims of the Trojan War, the tragedy is obvious; the War ended in genocide and total cultural destruction. But such a war, burnt into legend, should have left the victors far better off; and yet, the Greek heroes only suffer because of it. They die tragic, dishonourable deaths; their households are left in ruin; their families are torn apart. From both modern and classical perspectives, the Trojan War is a tragedy, a “harrowing destruction of life” (Euripides, Andromache, 291). The victory is pyrrhic, the loss of life is horrific, the reparations non-existent.

Although the title of the essay is In Defense of Distraction, Sam Anderson is attacking the culture of distraction. We are living in a culture where everyone is glued to technology and wants everything to come in a single instant. He mentions that humanity suffers from a serious poverty, a dearth of focus and attention. Distractions consume us, devouring our concentration, alleviating our boredom, and constantly pestering us. We cannot help the fact that we are so easily distracted; everywhere we go there, are bright neon advertisements, constant phone buzzes, and loud car horns blaring. We all will succumb to these inevitable distractions of society, Anderson states “We are, in short, terminally distracted” (Anderson 2). In Defense of Distraction

Medieval secular and papal rulers often crossed paths. Through the many clashes between monarch and papal authority, an overreaching struggle between ecclesiastical and secular powers is present. In fact, not since the earliest days of Christianity had the pope been a mere religious ruler. Some historians, such as Klaus Schatz and Brian Tierney, argue that the primacy of papal authority, when the papacy actively began extending its influence, is relegated to a specific era from 1050 to 1300. Gregory VII, Innocent III, Innocent IV, and Boniface VIII played important roles in promulgating the power of the papacy in many ways as well as the so-called lesser churches of Rome. Gregory VII created the active basis of this movement and subsequent

“Distracted driving refers to any nondriving activity that takes motorists ' attention away from the safe operation of their vehicles” (Leone). Every time a driver gets in a vehicle and decides to use a cell phone to have a conversation, either talking or texting, they put themselves and others lives in danger. The convenience a cell phone and the capabilities they offer have made them a substantial distraction and a cause of significant source of vehicle accidents and fatalities. There are three different types of distractions: visual, manual and cognitive. Cell phone use is the most dangerous distraction because it involves all three different types of distraction and plays a part in the increasing issue of distracted driving. Even

The amount of car accidents that happen each year continue to increase. This continues to happen because of the number of people who consistently drive distracted everyday. This is due to a surplus of reasons, however, many fall subject to driving distracted because they prioritize their cell phones more than what is happening on the road in front of them.

Using a cell phone while driving has become the biggest manual distraction while driving.  According to a study, conducted by The University of Utah (2013),

There is thousands of motor vehicle crashes every year. The leading cause of crashes is teenagers. In 2014, there was 2,270 teens ages 16-19 were killed and 221,313 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered by a motor vehicle. People ages 15-19 represented 7% of the U.S. population, but they accounted for 11%($10 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries. There are three main types of distractions. Visual: taking your eyes off the road; manual: taking your hands off of the steering wheel; and cognitive: taking your mind off of driving. Distracted driving actions include things like eating, using your cellphone, and messing with the radio. Texting while driving is especially dangerous because it uses all three types

Changing the radio station as well as dealing with children may be a distraction for the older age groups but texting while driving is one of the primary sources of accidents involving teens. Studies show that texting while driving takes your attention from the road for approximately five seconds at a time. Unfortunately, that is all the time needed to run a stop sign and collide into oncoming traffic. The problem that lies in most of these cases is that the person has been texting and driving for multiple months or years and believes they have “mastered” it, so to speak. They don’t believe this type of thing could happen to them. Alas, many people have that mindset, resulting in 1.6 million deaths and 330,000 injuries annually. They don’t find out that they were sadly mistaken until it is too

There are too many distractions in life as it is, are we so arrogant to think that we are such amazing drivers that we can do several things at once? Most accidents involving cell phones wouldn 't have happened if the driver wasn 't distracted. When we drive that should be the only activity we are doing.

As many people may know, distracted driving has become more of an issue as the years pass. There are multiple different things that you may not even know could be causing you a distraction while you are driving. These things could include loose object rolling around on the floorboard, change jingling in a console or in a cup holder, radio turned at a high volume causing you not to hear other car horns or sirens, children or pets in the car, fixing hair and or makeup, too many passengers, making adjustments to things in on your vehicle, such as adjusting the mirrors or the seats, texting, or attempting to eat and drink.

There are both cognitive and physical factors that contribute to accidents when drivers talk on their cell phones and/or text behind the wheel. The primary cognitive factor is that an individual’s attention is divided when he or she is paying attention to more than one thing at a time (Goldstein, 2011). For example, a driver’s attention is on the road and perhaps how far the car ahead of him/her is, but at the same time is also trying to read a text message on a cellular device. This divided attention reduces the reaction speed and driving performance of the driver because there are not as many cognitive resources available to focus his/her attention on the most important thing: driving. When the driver is processing

“A distracted driver may fail to see up to 50% of the available information in the driving environment. You may look but not actually “see” what is happening. Focus of the driver is not on the road or traffic and it becomes difficult to handle phone and vehicle at one time. Cell phones during driving also reduce the mental capacity of drivers as they fail to concentrate on minor or major activities happening around them. Cell phones distract drivers' attention resulting in comparatively slow response to traffic signals and other related traffic events. Studies have shown the fact that breaking reaction time is also slower while talking on a cell phone during driving. The perception, vision, general awareness, and concentration of the driver are impacted while communicating on a cell phone during driving. Especially during bad weather or driving on slippery roads, drivers engaging in conversation pay less attention to these areas increasing risks of fatal accidents.

Driving in general can be hazardous. Driving and having such a distraction as a cell phone at ear, or ringing somewhere in a car, is ten times more dangerous. Not surprisingly, drivers who use a cell phone while driving perceive cell phone use by others as less of a threat to their safety as do non-users. A huge number of accidents caused by talking on a cell phone. During the last 5 years texting has become insanely popular. It’s a great and convenient tool because people don’t have to call person to just say ‘ok’ on that dinner invitation. The worst part is that many people still think that texting while driving just that ‘ok’ is ok. Unfortunately, even with traffic police enforcing those ‘no cellphone’ laws, individuals still neglect those simple safety concerns. People need to start understanding themselves how dangerous it is.

One of the biggest distractions that I have is friends asking me to spend time with them. Whether they just want quality time or a chance to get something off of their chest and ask for advice, it can take up long periods of time. Reading a good book and watching a movie is one of my escapes and mental vacation, but once I start a book I won’t want to do anything else until I finish it. Another one of my significant distractions is texting, many of my closest friends and family members enjoy to text but, the problem is having to put what I am doing on my pause in order to respond. It takes me time to get my focus back onto task and all of those small pauses add up at the end of the day to a lot of time spent texting.

Art is something I have always admired but it has been just that, an admiration. I have been drawing since my earliest memory, and taught myself to draw from what I saw. While I have developed my skills over the years, I have never formally taken an art class or even learned about different varieties of art form. Now that I have the opportunity to pursue a degree in a creative field, I have realized there is such a vast majority of art, artists, and that we have to look deeper into art and the meaning behind it. Looking at art in terms of its contribution to society has been an even bigger challenge, because it is something that I personally have never thought to consider.