Many passengers do not think about their personal safety at all. They do not listen to the safety demo - "I'm a frequent flyer, I've heard it all before" - but have they actually thought about where their nearest door is? In a smoke filled cabin being able to see a door to go may not be possible, yet how many passengers take the simple measure of counting seat rows to the door - and counting seat rows to the alternative door? An evacuation is most likely on take off or landing, yet how many people kick off their shoes and rush to be in their PJs before takeoff - personally I would want my shoes on as a minimum if I am going to be evacuating a potentially burning fuselage into an area of land which has goodness knows what underfoot

The point is that people do not think of their own safety, in fact NASA have identified a psychological phenomena called "normalising deviance" which essentially says that if you undertake a risky operation and get away with it two or three times you assume that it is safe. I am not suggesting that aircraft operation is essentially unsafe but rather that people are generally happy to not think about their own safety. They would rather assume that it is all taken care of and that "I'll sue their ****s off if they don't get it right" but for all that they do not accept any personal responsibility for their own safety.

So until you become an expert in the safety related matters surrounding aviation why not be smart and take you earphones out, turn off your ipod, listen to the safety brief instead of reading your paper or talking loudly to your colleague. Let those who are professionally responsible for your safety do their job without being the idiot know-it-all who makes their life difficult. You may never need to know that stuff but you still buy life insurance right?