In One Ear and Out the Other

Ears serve a very specific function....to listen and process information in the brain. They don't come with a volume control switch to tune out surrounding noise.

The term selective hearing is a nice way of saying that a person listens to what they want to hear by tuning out what they feel is unimportant. Sometimes, however, what they tune out is valuable information and serves to provide a life saving measure for their safety.

Guidelines must be followed when customers board an aircraft and most important is the "safety demonstration" set forth by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This is a mandatory stage in the safety and comfort for customers and crew members.

For every three customers on board an aircraft, I can personally say that 66.66 percent of customers are listening during the demonstration. The other 33.33 percent are tuning out by listening to iPods, text messaging, using laptops, or distracting those that listen with loud conversations. There are also those that fall right-to-sleep as soon as they sit down.

The experience I've had on board an aircraft has shown me that, overall, for every 10 safety demos performed on board one is interrupted due to phones ringing or conversations that are to loud. These serve as distractions for those that are listening to the pertinent information and it is a dis-service to humanity.

The realization is that repeat customers hear safety demos time-and-time again and the demos rarely divert from the usual information. Yet, there are those that listen tentatively because they fear that "this-time-may-be-the-time" they need to save their lives.

Even though statistic say that flying is the safest way to travel, people have a bigger fear of flying then they do traveling in ground transportation.

The world would be a much better place if people listen and show consideration for others despite their personal short-comings