A False Sense of Security in the American Home (Assign 7)

False Sense of Security in the American Home

It’s 5am and your alarm clock is going off. You get up shower, blow-dry your hair, get dressed and you are off to work. You work hard all day at your job. Come the end of the work day, you are ready to go home, have dinner and spend time with your family, so you get in your car and are on your way. You get home, walk in the house and you have a sense of security and comfortableness. You flip on the lights all around the house to brighten the place up and make it look homier. The kids are home and doing their homework. Meanwhile, you are in the kitchen cooking dinner, finally it’s time to eat, afterwards everyone watches a movie and then it’s off to bed. The nightlights are plugged in and the handgun is in your nightstand ready to be used if someone gets through the alarm system; you drift peacefully to sleep, feeling comfortable, safe and secure in your bed. Various electrical devices and handguns have been used to keep the American family safe for years. But what happens when these technologies that we all have become so accustomed to, fail us? What happens when they no longer keep us safe, but put us in danger? These questions have led me to the bigger picture: Is there a false sense of security in the American home due to advances in technology?
The light bulb is one of the most common technologies of all time. It was invented in the 1800’s by Thomas Edison, since then it has grown in popularity and now everyone has them in their homes. I just walked through my 3 bedroom upper of a house that I rent and counted 47 light bulbs. American’s rely on light bulbs to give us light when it is dark, we do not perceive them as a dangerous technology, but they are, “According to the National Fire Protection Association, lamps, light fixtures, and light bulbs (28%) and fixed wiring (22%) accounted for the largest share of fires among major types of electrical distribution equipment” (www.nfpa.org). They are the leading cause in fires in homes, yet we still perceive them as keeping us safe. For example, when you were a child you were most likely afraid of the dark and had to sleep with a night light. You were afraid of the monsters that came out in the dark and believed that the light kept them at bay. The American culture sees light as safety, when in reality it can be very dangerous. Instead of a scary, hairy monster, you may experience a fire monster! But really this is nothing to joke about. According to the NFPA “each year fires that start in electrical systems or lighting equipment damage more than 24,000 homes, kill 320 people and injure 830 plus.” Americans see light and the light bulb as something that keeps us safe in our homes and lights the way for us in the dark. Most of us could not imagine life without the light bulb. Does the light bulb give us a false sense of security in our homes? We have so many in our homes that we use every day and we use them without thought. We have become so accustomed to light bulbs that it is just second nature to us. We never stop to think about the dangers that they can cause. Every time you flip the lights on, you are not afraid of a fire to start. Should we be? Should be afraid and more cautious? I honestly do not think that everyone should stop and think about this every time that they turn on a light, but I do think that Americans should be aware of the dangers. Light bulb and light fixture companies should take charge and promote this light bulb safety awareness, instead of just letting the National Fire Protection Association and others like it deal with it. They should make people aware of the dangers and how to prevent them. The county of Santa Clara has a whole section of their website devoted to this cause. They advise homeowners to make sure they do not overload electrical sockets, replace cracked or damages light fixtures and electrical cords. Light bulbs are not the only thing that we need to keep our eyes on. We have so many different electrical appliances that could cause harm to our home or worse our family. According to the Energy Information Association, the official energy statistics from the U.S. Government, “In 2007, the average monthly residential electricity consumption was 936 kilowatthours (kWh)” and” Appliances account for 64.7% of electricity consumption in the average American household (2001). Refrigerators consumed the most electricity (14%), followed by lighting (9%)” (www.eia.doe.gov). The average American home uses a large amount of electricity and most of that is in appliances. Lighting only accounts for 9% of the 64.7%, which leaves 55.7% for the rest of the appliances we use. Like the county of Santa Clara says, make sure you do not plug in many appliances into one electrical socket. American’s use a lot of electricity and thus have become so dependent on it. We are accustomed to having our nightlights, our refrigerators, alarm systems, vacuums, microwaves, televisions and other various electrical appliances. I do not think that most people realize how much electricity they use or how many appliances they have plugged in at once. American’s like things done fast and don’t usually stop to think about the consequences. For example, my first roommate was always in a rush, she would get up late hurry to get ready and run out the door for class or work. She was always leaving her hair straightener plugged in and on. I learned to always check if it was on before I left for class, so she would not burn the place down. One weekend I went to go visit some friends in Madison, on Sunday when I got back I found out that there was a fire in our apartment! My roommate had left her hair straightner on and it had caught some nearby papers on fire. Luckily she was home at the time, so nothing was really damaged but it could have been really bad if she had left. Ever since then, she has always remember to turn off and even unplug her straightner after every use. She was never bothered with thinking about the consequences until she had to, and now she has learned from it. This is just one example of how you have to be careful with electrical appliances. They may make you feel safer or make your life seem easier, but they can put you and your belongings in danger if not used correctly. And sometimes even when they are used correctly things go wrong, but that’s just life.
Back in the day we didn’t have guns. We protected our loved ones through other ways. But since the invention of guns we have come to use them more for safety. In our Constitution the 2nd Amendment is the right to bear arms. From the beginning of our country’s history, guns have been inseparable from the American culture. According to Douglas J. Wiebe Ph. D. who is a Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics Senior Fellow, “One in three U.S. households contains at least one firearm” and “there were roughly 200 million firearms in private hands in the U.S. – almost one for every American adult” (LDI Issue Brief). Many Americans own handguns and keep them in their homes, they say they have them to protect their families and keep them safe, but are they doing the job? In Technology Matter, the author David Nye says that, “In 1998, 31,708 Americans died from gunshots. Of these 17,424 were suicides. More than 1,000 of the deaths were due to accidents. Americans also used guns to murder 12, 102 people, many of them in domestic disputes. Roughly two-thirds of all gun-related deaths were self-inflicted accidents, suicides, or murders within the circle of family and friends. Guns purchased as protection against criminals or intruders all too often killed the people they were expected to protect” (p. 167). I do not think they are doing their job of keeping people safe from criminals and intruders. Instead they are causing alarming death rates because of accidents or arguments that got out of hand. Suicide rates are higher in homes that have guns. According to Douglas J. Wiebe’s study “Guns were the most common method of suicide, accounting for the deaths of 68% of male victims and 42% of female victims. The most commonly used type of firearm was a handgun. Most victims were at home when they committed suicide, and most used a gun that matched a type of gun in their home.” Also from this study, Wiebe claims that people with a gun in their home are 3.4 more times likely to commit suicide than people without guns in their home. I am not saying that guns are the cause of suicide but if someone is thinking about it and on the edge, they may do something rash and a gun in their home could be the weapon of choice. Not only is gun-related suicide higher in homes with guns but accidental deaths and injuries are much higher in homes with guns too. I knew this kid in high school, Chris, he came on the bus one day with his face all bruised and gross, turns out his little brother accidentally shot him in the face above the eye with a BB gun. The little BB was still under his skin, he could have had his eye shot out, but he was lucky. His little brother was not even allowed to be using that gun, but he said he was just playing with it. Accidents like that happen all the time, and lucky for my friend Chris, it was just a BB gun. It could have been much worse. According to Wiebe, “Persons living in a home where a gun was present were 3.7 times more likely to die from an unintentional gunshot wound than persons with no gun in the home.” So people go to the store and buy these guns thinking that they will help to keep their family safe but in reality they are doing the opposite. These guns are putting your family in danger; the risks get higher when there is a gun in the home. I know that the facts are out there and this has been a debate that has been going on for years, but the deaths keep racking up. The gun was a technology that was slow to take up, but once it replaced other methods it became very popular. Now most American families have them to protect their families but in reality they are what you should be protecting your family against.
Every technology has a good side and a bad side. With every advantage comes another disadvantage. This is just how things work. With the light bulb and other electrical devices you get light, an alarm system, or an easier way of doing things but the cost could be a fire, a ruined home, dead loved ones. Then you have the gun in your home that you say protects your family, and maybe sometimes it does but you also have a higher risk of suicide and accidental death and/or injury. How many disadvantages are we willing to overlook for an advantage? Do we use our electricity and have our hand guns in our nightstand and feel safe? Yes, most of us do. We do not think of the disadvantages, we don’t stop and think about the consequences of our actions or our possessions. Sometimes the American culture can be so one-sided, focusing on one aspect. We need to stop and think things through; we need to realize that with good comes bad. We need to be ready to face the bad.