Distracted Walking Essay

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Distracted Walking: Your Responsibility and Mine Nowadays, the daily pedestrian commute is not complete without the occasional bumping-into, tripping-on or toppling-over. These text messages need a reply immediately and those calls have to be returned now or else...or else...or else nothing. These tasks that seem to require such immediate attention can and should wait until the appropriate time, when there are fewer risks of accidental contact with a light pole head-on or an unintentional 6 ft. dive off a bridge or even an inconvenient encounter with a moving van. Many of us young adults, especially those ages 16 to 25, can confess to committing the seemingly innocent act of walking while talking or texting – also called “wexting” (Dempsey). On the other hand, drivers can attest to constantly having to swerve or dodge persons who are totally engrossed in their cell phones, unaware of the imminent collision. These unfortunate incidents will not cease to occur if every individual does not make it their personal responsibility to be more aware while on the road. It is not debatable that the use of cell phones and iPods, among other portable electronic devices, is the main cause of distracted pedestrian injuries. The fact is that at a cognitive level, walking and texting simultaneously takes as much brain power as required to complete a complex spatial task. In 2011 a research group reported that: “People in a crosswalk simulator reached the other side more quickly while doing a math problem, for instance, than while conversing on a cell phone” (Jaffe). Mr Ira Hyman, a physiology professor from the Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, calls this preoccupation “inattention blindness,” meaning that someone looking at an object, while using any gadget, can fail to register the object or process what it is (Ritchel). This is the reason many are not
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