Cellphone + Walking = Potenial Disaster

You know its happened to you...Walking along, texting your buddy, looking for updates, scoping out the latest app download. And then Boom!! It happens...you run into something, a tree, a pole, parked car or even another person who wasn't paying attention while they were on their phone! Just like driving and texting, have we reached the stage where we can't even walk and use our phones? Let's find out...

Scientists at Stony Brook University in New York conducted experiments with 33 male and female adults in their 20s and discovered texters in particular had a tough time walking an expeditious straight line between two points.

The results showed cellphone activity clearly interfered with the subjects’ working memory. The first group performed the test as easily as they had previously, while those in the talker group walked about 16 percent slower than before but still in a somewhat straight line. But those in the texting group veered off course by 61 percent and walked 33 percent more slowly.

In other words, you may think you’re looking up enough while texting or talking, but your brain apparently isn’t absorbing the information necessary for you to walk normally. This, in turn, may cause you to misjudge the distance to a curb or fail to detect subtle changes in your walking surface — and could lead to a fall.