Many people don’t understand where to draw the line when it comes to using technology. They will remain glued to it, even at the expense of another person’s safety.

This has become an increasing problem throughout the world — especially in accident and crime scenes where the misuse of technology has made its unwelcome presence.

On June 24, a video surfaced of a mother getting beaten outside by a female co-worker while bystanders looked on and recorded it with their cellphones. The only person who tried to help was her 2-year-old son who can be seen in the video kicking the co-worker as she attacks his mother.

What’s even more appalling is the woman then threatened to attack the child as well. Still, no one stepped in to help either one of them.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time people decide to film a crime or accident scene instead of jump in to help the victim. Recently in Dallas, police Lt. Anthony Williams came across a wrecked vehicle on the highway and discovered two people inside, burning alive.

Immediately, he tried to help, looking for anyone with a fire extinguisher. What he found instead was a crowd of onlookers videotaping the horrifying scene. Not only had they been there before he arrived, but they had made it a priority to whip out their cellphones and film the victims’ deaths rather than take action that could have saved lives.

Also, two years ago in Steubenville, Ohio, high school students filmed and took pictures of the repeated sexual assault of an unconscious girl by two other students. The witnesses to this crime even went as far as documenting everything on social media.

The result? Unimaginable pain and humiliation for a girl that could have easily been prevented had one of the other students decided to put a stop to the senseless crime.

According to psychologists, these incidents may be attributed to the bystander effect, which by definition is “when the presence of others hinders an individual from intervening in an emergency situation.” Only now the misuse of technology is raising it to an alarming new level.

The National Crime Victimization Survey found that a bystander was present in 65 percent of violent victim occurrences with 48 percent of bystanders deemed by victims as neither helping nor hurting the situation. Too often people either don’t intervene when they need to or they think it’s OK to bring technology into the picture and record the events that unfold.

Unfortunately, it’s not against the law to stand there watching an accident scene, even if you’re documenting it in some way, so why should people be inclined to stop this behavior? Or if the incident doesn’t involve you, then why should you put yourself in it?

Well for one, if you’ve made it your business to film or photograph the situation, then why not take it up a notch and help if it’s needed?

For some people, there’s simply a lack of empathy; they place more importance on using their technology to record the accident or crime scene rather than save a life. For others, there’s the belief that recording the incident is a form of intervention and help, when in fact it’s quite the opposite.

R. Umar Abbasi, a freelance photographer for the New York Post, demonstrated this misconception in December 2012 when his controversial photo of a man about to be hit by an oncoming subway train went viral.

As to why he had chosen to cling onto his camera instead of trying to pull the man to safety, the photographer later stated that he had taken pictures in hopes that the camera’s flash would alert the driver to stop.

But it probably would have been a bit more realistic to try to pull the man up to safety like other onlookers had tried to do. Although they were unable to, maybe he would have gotten there in time.

While people can justify in their heads all day long about the reasons why they’ll stand by and document an emergency scene, the reality is, it is not OK. People have been hurt, and lives have been lost due to the high priority that’s been continuously placed on technology.

So many tragic situations could have ended up with different outcomes had the person videotaping, snapping pictures and/or uploading the content to Facebook had just set aside their technology and sprang into action to provide help.

People need to snap out of their technologically induced passiveness and stop letting harmful situations spiral out of control. They need to call the police and/or take action themselves. Someone’s life may depend on it.