You probably understand how dangerous texting while driving is, (even though tons of people do it anyway), but when it comes to texting walking the perceived threats seem a lot less. Plus, we’re busy and sometimes a work break walking to get coffee is the only time we have to respond to personal texts. But we’re not as good as texting while walking as we think, and we should probably give it a rest.
Some researchers at the Texas A&M University decided to figure out how our physical behavior changes when we text and walk as opposed to just walking along with purpose. Not totally surprisingly, they found that the participants become less efficient walkers when they were looking down at their phones.
They found that they took smaller steps in general, walked slower than normal, and also took bigger steps to go up and down curbs than they would if walking had more of their attention. The upside to all of that, is that the risk of tripping while texting doesn’t seem to go up, however there are still other risks including walking into things, off of things, in front of cars, etc.
Besides the fact that the odds of something going wrong increase when your texting while walking, you also tend to slow and distract other people who are trying to get around you as well. Like a human traffic jam. You know how annoying that it is when you’re the one with your phone put away trying to pass slow people glued to their screens.
The author of the study Conrad Earnest, Ph.D, explained this behavior.
“People who are walking and texting may slow their pace and alter their gait as a protective measure to perform all of the required tasks simultaneously. ”
Makes sense, but why not just get where you’re going faster and then text once you do?
Another study that was done at the University of Washington found that people who were texting while walking were four times as likely to make an unsafe move while crossing a busy intersection. Unsafe moves include walking against the light, not looking both ways, or skipping the crosswalk and walking mid intersection. None of these would be too much of an issue if there weren’t any cars around, but there are, and a good portion of those drivers are also texting, so don’t think the pedestrians are necessarily their top priority.
Many of us don’t take these texting and walking dangers too seriously since we’ve never had an issue and we don’t have any friends that have either. However, the risks are real and there are people getting injured out there, wherever they are. Between 2004 and 2010 pedestrian injuries in general dropped, but the occurrence of texting while walking injuries went up…and tripled in numbers. Men under the age of 31 were the most likely to pay for a risky texting while walking move, but it could happen to anyone.
If it’s not your personal safety that you’re concerned about, maybe think about how embarrassing it would be to end up on YouTube if you walked into a pole.