65% Of People Text While Walking

Sites include textplus.com . Published on June 4th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

We recently covered the dangerous act of texting while driving, but its lesser known cousin—texting while walking—is still a big problem. So bad is texting while walking that a New Jersey town has taken the initiative to fine anyone caught doing it.

Texting and calling app, Textplus isn’t helping much by its latest survey which found that 65% of people are prone to texting while they walk. We certainly don’t need much evidence to see that the practice can be dangerous—even if so far most of the accidents that arise from the practice have been farcical. Remember the woman who fell into a water fountain at the mall because she was too busy texting?

Accidents like those are a humorous reminder that we really should be more careful when using our phones—in the car or on foot.

Unsurprisingly the older we go up the ladder; the less prevalent is the practice. According to the survey, only about half of 35-44 year olds admit to walking and texting. A whopping 73% of 13-17 year olds admitted to texting and walking, suggesting of course that the younger folks may be more at risk.

On the other hand, it wasn’t a 17 year old that fell into the water fountain—that woman looked middle aged. I would say about 44. At any rate, a lot of people are upset by the practice and as one commentator put it: “Social darwinism is far more beneficial than dumbass-proofing the world.”