"Not that it really matters, but on Friday I missed a subway train because the woman in front of me drifted placidly to a standstill on the stairs, distracted by something on her smartphone. In hindsight I realise that this was probably a subway-specific thing: it was her determination to retain network coverage, I'm guessing, that rendered her oblivious to the people behind her. But as I stalked along the platform, cursing under my breath, I mentally filed the incident alongside a number of recent above-ground encounters. These days, it seems, I'm forever navigating around people utterly absorbed in their phones.
In fact, I'll go further, though I admit I have zero scientific evidence for the following observation: here in New York, in the last few months, it feels as though we've crossed a threshold. Smartphones have been ubiquitous for years, of course – but much more recently, there seems to have been a shift in social norms. For many people, the unwritten rules of sidewalk choreography now include this: if what I'm reading or watching on my phone is sufficiently interesting to me, it's entirely up to you to get out ofmy way, just as if I were very frail, or three years old, or blind. Or a lamppost.
I know, I know: I sound like a curmudgeon. (This is because I am a curmudgeon.) But the consequences of "distracted walking" are graver than simply causing me annoyance, grave as that may be. According toresearch published earlier this year, injuries caused by cellphone distraction and requiring emergency room treatment shot up, in the US, from 559 in 2004 to 1,500 in 2010. Some victims walked off bridges, or into moving traffic; around two-thirds of the victims were under 25. Last year, a Los Angeles man was so busy texting he almost walked into a bear, while in Indiana a woman strolled straight into an icy river. The year before, a woman in Pennsylvania fell into a shopping mall fountain for related reasons – then threatened to sue the mall. You can watch video of her blunder here, but please don't do so on your iPhone while approaching me in the street."
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