Message to Self: In 2015, Stop Texting While Walking - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/fashion/in-2015-resolve-to-stop-texting-while-walking.html
As a society, we now spend almost half of our waking hours looking at screens, according to numerous reports. People have admitted to using their smartphone in meetings, on the toilet and even during sex. And according to a 2013 research report compiled by Liberty Mutual Insurance, 70 percent of people in the United States admit to texting and walking.
“So much attention has been paid, and rightly so, to distracted driving that we have ignored the fact that distracted walking and crossing can be just as risky,” David Melton, a driving safety expert with Liberty Mutual, wrote in the report.
A study published earlier this year in the medical journal PLOS One found that walking and using your smartphone at the same time affects people’s posture and balance, causing them to swerve and walk slower. (In other words, you look like a person who’s had six too many drinks.) As a result, researchers found, texting and walking can cause accidents, “including falls, trips and collisions with obstacles or other individuals.”
Jack Nasar, an Ohio State University professor, led a study that found the number of people who end up in emergency rooms each year due to cellphone-related injuries more than doubled from 2005 to 2010. Mr. Nasar also found that those most likely to end up harmed are actually the youngest, with people between the ages of 16 and 25 being injured the most.