Loud music is not only a public safety issue, it cuts you off from the people and life happening around you. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“Do you want Beethoven to be the last thing you hear?” This question is posed by a public safety ad in San Francisco targeting pedestrians who walk wearing headsets, listening to music, or talking on their phones, born from a spate of fatal accidents where people have been hit by transit vehicles.

Similar campaigns have popped up in Texas and are undoubtedly under consideration in many other states. Join this to the 2011 National Safety Council statistics that 28 percent of all traffic accidents, or 1.6 million accidents last year alone, are caused by cellphone use.

Surprisingly, the statistics suggest that talking on your cellphone is 12 times more likely to cause an accident than texting while driving. I’m not sure I agree with that one, but I think we get the point. This article is not a public safety message (although it seems like that wouldn’t be a bad idea either), but more of a public awareness message: awareness of missed opportunities.

While recently at the gym, I was perplexed by the number of people keenly focused on their phones—reading messages, scrolling for music, having conversations, and just fiddling and browsing the Internet. What they were not focused on was working out or the people around them. For example, they didn’t even seem to notice that others were waiting in line for the piece of equipment they were supposed to be using. Then again, the theme of this article is not about manners or keeping other people waiting either. I want to go deeper.

What if you are single and looking for a mate and that special someone passes you by while you are engrossed in your phone? I’d say that’s a missed opportunity you might regret. Or what if when you are walking along deciding which playlist to select next, you fail to notice some dropped money on the ground that would really help you pay this month’s rent? What if you are walking to the subway more slowly because you are busy texting to your friend that you might be late and you just miss the train. Now you are definitely late!

Not persuaded? You don’t need a romantic partner and are not worried about being distracted and causing an accident? Consider then what you are missing when you are not silent and open to possibilities. You are not allowing yourself downtime, time for reflection, or even time for your adrenal system to rest for a moment.

It has already been proven that multitasking is not efficient and that tasks take longer from all of the starting and stopping, so scratch that excuse. Also, the number of fatigue disorders and illnesses caused by stress increases every year. More and more, people feel drained, unenthusiastic about life, and as if there is not even a purpose for them to live.

Quiet time allows us to think about problems, situations, the future, the past, and to just listen to what the universe has to say to us in response to our thinking. Allowing ourselves some mental peace and quiet can yield amazing results for our health and well-being. It’s not magic, it’s just common sense.

Apparently, common sense is not in high supply right now as is evidenced by the 16-year-old who went walking on train tracks with his headphones on (and I gather playing music extremely loudly) and didn’t hear the whistling of the train. We will never know what his life may have yielded for himself and others.

Lloyd Princeton is the managing partner of iMatchDesigners LLC, a matchmaking company for architects, interior designers, and landscape professionals, matching professionals to projects of all types, anywhere in the world. You can find more information about iMatchDesigners at www.imatchdesigners.com