Lexi bumped into someone at the mall. Curtis slammed into a parking meter. Ryan tripped over a bag at the airport. You’ve probably seen it, and maybe you’ve even laughed: People can end up in some pretty goofy situations when they text and walk at the same time.
Believe it or not, people can also get hurt.
The American College of Emergency Physicians warns people about texting on the move. ER docs who treat people like Curtis (he cracked his ribs in his encounter with the parking meter) say that we need to be more cautious about when and where we text.
What’s the Big Deal?
The problem is multitasking. No matter how young and agile we are, the human brain just isn’t capable of doing several things at once and giving full attention to all of them. So you can get into some major danger if you try to text in situations that require your full focus.
When you text you’re thinking about what to say, concentrating on what your thumbs are doing, and reading constantly incoming messages rather than paying attention to what you’re doing or where you’re going. And that significantly ups your risk of getting hurt or injuring others.
It doesn’t matter if you can text without looking at the keypad. Even if texting feels like second nature, your brain is still trying to do two things at once — and one of them is bound to get less attention.
Texting also prevents you from paying close attention to what’s going on around you, something that’s especially important in situations where you need to have your guard up, like walking home after dark. Your reaction time is also likely to be much slower if you’re texting. If you’re about to run into someone or something else, you may not have time to act before it’s too late.
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