I’m guilty, although thankfully I’ve not caused an accident (yet). The NY Times’ Jane Brody does a good job marshaling the evidence to prove what most of us already know: staring at your smart phone while walking is dangerous… to you and those around you.
The reason?
Dr. Lajam echoed the warning issued by a number of experts that “you can’t really pay attention to more than one thing at a time.” That, the experts say, is how the human brain evolved, and to think otherwise is a recipe for disaster.
Tidbits:
- Distracted walks swerve off the beeline up to 61%
- Women over the age of 55 are most likely to suffer serious injuries from distracted walking (by themselves or others)
- Prevalence of distracted walking has tracked upward with that of cellphone use
- More than half of distracting walking “episodes” happen at home
Remember: out of the 10 million bits of information that your brain processes every second, only 50 are devoted to conscious thought. Attention is brittle and scarce, so watch where you’re going!
