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The Tragic Allure Of Technology
Everything has a dark side.
We think of our phones almost as toys. They’re both fun and a necessary tool for daily living.
We forget that our phones can also get us, or someone we love, killed.
Richard Jacobson, a 21-year-old man from Arizona, died after falling 700 feet while trying to get a selfie of himself against the skyline of downtown Phoenix at night.
In my own town, Mariya D. Silva has been charged with felony child endangerment in the death of her seven-week-old son. She placed the child in a bath tub seat, put the seat in a normal, adult bath tub, turned on the water, and walked away.
Over a span of approximately 15 minutes, she took a phone call that lasted nine minutes and 30 seconds, loaded the dishwasher, did some laundry, and sent and received text messages while her baby became completely submerged and drowned in the tub.
Silva is 30 years old. Even if this is her first child, it’s difficult to imagine that she wasn’t aware of the danger of leaving her seven-week-old baby in a bath tub with the water running.
But let’s give her the benefit of a doubt. She thought she’d just do something quick — load the dishwasher — and then go right back to the baby.