I have come to recognize the walking style of some people as I walk behind them. This often reminds me of the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch from the infamous Monty Python, watch this before you read on.
Often times I get off a bus or a tram to get to work and right then someone in front of me moves in a slow, aimless, unfocused manner, sometimes even across the pedestrian walk, where vehicles are waiting to drive on but can’t until this individual passes; they are often gazing at an almost 45-degree angle downward and unaware that other people actually exist around them. I am forced to do an overtaking maneuver and as I pass this individual I notice that s/ he is staring into her/ his mobile phone. This is what I call the Smartphone Stomp. Just this week, one of my older patients was walking through the city in the shadow of buildings, to avoid the strong sunlight and she informed me that she nearly got stomped over by 2 people looking into their mobile phones, also walking in the shade so that they could look into their devices while walking. Smartphone Stomp – the walk a person engages in when s/he is looking into their mobile phone irrespective of others around them, possibly walking into others or stopping traffic for no apparent reason other than not being present in this reality. Maybe Monty Python had the ability to look into the future in 1970, to be able to foresee that society in the 2020s would be dealing with this theme of silly walks.
Then of course there are the other ones riding a bicycle or an e-bike, scooter or car while looking into their mobile phones – the ones with a death wish but unaware of it. Talk about taking risks; risking your own life and the life of others in order to stay on your mobile phone. Why would one do this? It would be a sad way to leave the world; falling into a hole or getting driven over by a car as one was too busy staying in touch on social media or news on the mobile phone, which somehow couldn’t wait till we got to a safer place. What have we become? Slaves to a digital object that dictates we stay on it all of our waking hours and some.
When they named it a smartphone, did they mean we would become smarter if we used it, or did they mean the smartphone would become smarter while we became stupid-er? From what I have observed, I believe it to be the latter. Even I, who try not to use my mobile device often and most definitely not staring into it while I am walking, am starting to feel the effect it has on my ability to memorize things. In fact there have been recent studies conducted that have shown that the smartphone effects a deficiency in memory and learning just by its mere presence in the room. This object somehow distracts, makes us lazy and by the looks of it on the street, stupid.
We, humans of the modern world, have to get a grip on things and take back our intelligence and our attention. It’s time to hold ourselves accountable for our actions, as well as Big Tech that makes these devices and content to keep people glued to it 24/7. It’s time to wake up from the lull of smartphone distractions, become present with ourselves and the people as well as the environment around us. I was just informed by my partner that there is a rise in the use of the “dumbphone,” those mobile phones without a touchscreen. If it means we take back our intelligence and our common sense, then so be it.
Image by Pete Linforth on Pixabay
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