Walking and texting/tweeting/blogging

This is getting silly, i live in the center of a busy, compact city. The high street is more like a very busy train station.

I dont like to walk and text because the few minutes it takes to get to my next resting location, is worth avoiding being run down or falling over school children/pets/fire hydrants. Plus the quite obvious desire not to drift into people like a dumb iceberg and generally not be a nuisance.

Some people seem to walk and text not only oblivious to their surroundings (that's their own problem) but almost seem to use the phone as a mystical device to part crowds of people - this irritates me greatly! How arrogant?!

It seems to send the message "I'm texting or reading my phone, you can see that im using my phone, therefore YOU must get out of MY way because im busy".

Seems like common curtsey in the street is slowly falling away.

What should i do about it? Perhaps start texting and walking around too i guess? Why should i have to CONSTANTLY walk around people who would otherwise just walk right into me. Some times they even look up, see me, look back at their phone and march on the same path right at me! Its not a big deal to step around some one and i dopnt mind, but when its only me doing it, all the time, all the way to my destination, each time it just chip chip chips away.

Once, a lady coming towards me with her friend, looking at her phone, forced me into the road AND bumped into me, when i turned and shouted "hey watch where you are going you just bumped me into traffic!" she didnt respond AT ALL. I was amazed and stunned, you just hit some one, made them walk in the road against on coming traffic without so much as a sorry. She was about 40 years of age (its not all young people!).

Am i being overly sensitive, old and grumpy?

I don't like it when you are waiting in line to check out at a store and people are on their phone talking nice and loud.
I dislike it even more when their turn to check out comes up and they won't postpone the call long enough for the cashier to have their attention.

I remember when a phone was either in your house or in a booth. People can't function without cell phones now.

Well, it's not just you that feels this way. I'm a walker and "drivers" do this to me all the time. When its my turn to walk half the time people don't even look up and continue to turn anyway. I've dodged cars by inches plenty of times. Once I was walking along the sidewalk and this woman went to turn into the bank as I was walking by and she didn't slow down or anything. I threw my hands up as she stopped about four inches short of slamming into me. She didn't get out to make sure I was alright or anything, she just waited for me to move aside so she could continue onto the ATM. Like her withdrawal was more important than my life.
It would seem common decency is scarce all around these days.

reply to post by butcherguy


Well if you think back to when mobiles were first out, they were cool, people on them wanted everyone to know how awesome they were.

Then they got more and more popular till the day when any adult was expected to have one: Then something happened!

People as a society decided that talking on the phone can be in some circumstances be deemed quite rude, people now leave rooms for a private call, take a quick call and just "call you back", keep voices down on public transport, heck even some train cars are specifically no mobile devices or phones.

So perhaps we are moving towards a social 'fix', but we have to let it become a problem before its seen as somthing to fix.

All i know is that, right now it annoys the hell out of me in the exact same way busy young mothers use their pushchairs/strollers as battering rams with the same expectation that you will have to move when THEY want you to, the poor child at the front of it helpless, but luckily not everyone is a busy teenage mother

I guess I am old and grumpy as well.
If someone is walking twards me, texting or on the phone, I will not move. If they run into me, I politely tell them they should probably be careful, or next time it could be a car. So far, most are sheepish and do apologize. The few rude ones, I just smile and say have a great day. They don't seem to like that either.

One of these days I vowed to myself to have a chair on my porch and I shall sit on it and curse any kids who get on my lawn! Until then I know the only thing I can truly control is myself, my reactions and my responses.

Oh, don't EVEN get me started!

First of all, thank you for posting a rant about one of my single most hated aspects of our society.

Little disgusts or pisses me off more than watching some moron with a phone who is too busy texting or updating facebook with mindless crap that they put not only their own safety, but that of others at risk.

I often drive my parents and grandparents to Dr. appointments and I spend a fair bit of time sitting in a vehicle in a busy parking lot waiting and watching the goings on around me.

Let me just say I've seen it all. Dozens of people walking into parked cars, doors, other people, and a whole myriad of stationary objects.
I've even watched a woman drive into a parked Purolator truck cause she was looking at her phone.

Sometimes I think that these people, the ones that can only look up from their phone for 3 seconds at a time and the other ones that live on facebook (that's a whole other issue) are becoming a threat to my personal future.

Just like their too busy with the phone and facebook to look up, their too busy to look at what's going on in the real world around them.
Our governments are poisoning our food and medicine, spying on us, and generally screwing everyone of us left right and center and too many of us have our heads down. WAKE UP!

Anyway, as for the comments about common courtesy regarding these people. I really don't care anymore if they have none cause I am the type of person to show them none as well.
If I see you walking towards me and look up from your phone, then back down thinking I am gonna move, you're dead wrong buddy.
Be thankful I'm walking and not driving and that its illegal to drive over people who piss you off.

I'm not really a thread starter and this was on my list to do one day, but you beat me to it.
Probably for the best cause I have a lot more to say but I'll leave it at this.

reply to post by Biigs


My roommate told me she got off a packed BART car the other day and was at the front of a crowd coming down the stairs. The woman in front of her stopped to respond to a text and set the whole crowd tripping over themselves. My roommate told her that was no place to stop and text. Her answer: "Oh. Sorry...." as she moved to one side. Something tells me she didn't take any kind of lesson from it.

A while back, two days in succession driving home from work, I got behind a woman (same woman both days) on Interstate 80 as it becomes a traffic-jam coming into Berkeley. This lady would stop when the traffic stopped, but when the traffic moved again she just sat there. When there was about a quarter-mile between her and the traffic ahead, I'd give her a brief blast of the horn and yell out my window. I kept noticing that she seemed to be examining something in the between-seat console. Eventually it occurred to me that she was texting. The thing is, there's now a law against texting while driving, but the penalty is something like $20. Doesn't seem adequate somehow.

People are absolute morons under the power of these things. I don't understand it. All I can say is I hope the novelty wears off soon....

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
reply to post by Biigs

 

People are absolute morons under the power of these things. I don't understand it. All I can say is I hope the novelty wears off soon....

That's the sad part my friend.
I really don't think the novelty is going to wear off anytime soon.

We now have social media integrated into more and more things. TV's, Game Consoles, Cars, and I even seen a friggin FRIDGE with wi-fi capability. God only knows what else it will be integrated with in the near future.

You got to give credit to the Governments foresight though. I guess when they created PRISM they seen all this coming. Bastards.

reply to post by ShadowLink


Feel free ShadowLink to express any and all thoughts regarding lack of respect, care, attention and disregard for personal safety. This is the thread to do it.

I got on a bus the other day, strangest thing, deadly quiet 90% of people on the bus and it was a full one, were starring at their phones lightly tapping away the glossy glass screens. But you know what the weirdest thing i think? How much time people spend on their mobile devices and yet how little they actually seem to know about the world.

Ironic and sad the average person knows (more so younger adults) what their best friends cat did 14 minutes ago but when you say "hey did you hear about prism?" you get a blank stare back before they say something stupid like "nah, but OMG WTF did you hear what a couple of celebs called their baby LOL?!" *I sigh*

Im glad im not alone, i was beginning to think im one of those, 'if it bugs you everywhere you go, its probably you', things.

Have you guys seen this? blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com...

The guy who took the picture, Justin Argall, claimed to news outlets and on Facebook that the cop was going more than 80 mph on U.S. 60 (where 65 mph is the posted speed limit) and was texting for a few miles. That probably means he was going about 80 while trying to operate his camera phone, but, hey, he's not a cop.

I know it's not walking but it's still ridiculous. It's bad enough that people text or look at their phones while driving a car but this guy was doing it while speeding on a motorcycle and he's a cop! (there's a pic on the linked page.)

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
reply to post by Biigs

 

My roommate told me she got off a packed BART car the other day and was at the front of a crowd coming down the stairs. The woman in front of her stopped to respond to a text and set the whole crowd tripping over themselves. My roommate told her that was no place to stop and text. Her answer: "Oh. Sorry...." as she moved to one side. Something tells me she didn't take any kind of lesson from it.

This is a combo of the classic, 'have a meeting at the bottom of a stairwell, entrance or hall way' types with the arrogant phone users on the side. Collective dumbing rather than collective thinking on that one (seems to be mostly foreign students as the culprit for this one). I usually say something obnoxious to myself in my head, along the lines of "Oh are you having a meeting in the most stupid place in the building, can anyone join in or do you have to have the IQ of a pile of dead leaves?"

I dont know, i think it is a certain amount of grumpy old man, but then i was raised different just 30 years before.

Alot of the perceived rudeness is them simply not knowing whats going on, like holding a door open for a lady with some bags, the Mobile Phone Attention Focused Drone (MPAFD) is being rude and unpolite where perhaps if they left their phone at home that day, they would not hesitate to help.

@ifeelsohigh - i tryed to snap a pic of the car in front while riding my motorbike once.... i say once, i nearly crashed, dropped the phone AND missed the pic - yeah just once. Lesson learned, at least the only person i would have inconvenienced would have been me.

Originally posted by Biigs

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
reply to post by Biigs

 

My roommate told me she got off a packed BART car the other day and was at the front of a crowd coming down the stairs. The woman in front of her stopped to respond to a text and set the whole crowd tripping over themselves. My roommate told her that was no place to stop and text. Her answer: "Oh. Sorry...." as she moved to one side. Something tells me she didn't take any kind of lesson from it.

This is a combo of the classic, 'have a meeting at the bottom of a stairwell, entrance or hall way' types with the arrogant phone users on the side. Collective dumbing rather than collective thinking on that one (seems to be mostly foreign students as the culprit for this one). I usually say something obnoxious to myself in my head, along the lines of "Oh are you having a meeting in the most stupid place in the building, can anyone join in or do you have to have the IQ of a pile of dead leaves?"

I dont know, i think it is a certain amount of grumpy old man, but then i was raised different just 30 years before.

Alot of the perceived rudeness is them simply not knowing whats going on, like holding a door open for a lady with some bags, the Mobile Phone Attention Focused Drone (MPAFD) is being rude and unpolite where perhaps if they left their phone at home that day, they would not hesitate to help.

@ifeelsohigh - i tryed to snap a pic of the car in front while riding my motorbike once.... i say once, i nearly crashed, dropped the phone AND missed the pic - yeah just once. Lesson learned, at least the only person i would have inconvenienced would have been me.

edit on 2-7-2013 by Biigs because: (no reason given)

Grumpy old man Tell me about it. Eisenhower was President when I was a kid, for Christ's sake. We had no Interstate highways, and had dial phones on party lines. (Multiple users on the same line, for the kids recently arriving on Earth.) The first TV I ever saw belonged to some neighbors a couple of blocks over. They had a huge yard, and used to bring their TV outside on summer evenings. They'd put out all their chairs and set up a large table for an impromptu neighborhood potluck. Born a hundred years too late--that's my problem.

The thing is, though: I don't think there's really anything wrong with these last couple of generations, at bottom. I just think all the new technology was the perfect excuse for social retardation. Nobody wants to look up and see what's going on. And I can't really blame them....

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
The thing is, though: I don't think there's really anything wrong with these last couple of generations, at bottom. I just think all the new technology was the perfect excuse for social retardation. Nobody wants to look up and see what's going on. And I can't really blame them....

The new age of the TechnOstrich? tehehehe

well they are all voters and future voters, they should care it quite literally couldn't be any more important for their futures and the future of the capitalist world.

Originally posted by Biigs
The new age of the TechnoOstrich? tehehehe

well they are all voters and future voters, they should care it quite literally couldn't be any more important for their futures and the future of the capitalist world.

That is why I say they are becoming a threat to my future.

Here we have one of the greatest tools of all time to spread information and organize resistance and spread knowledge at the speed of light.

Yet it goes almost completely to waste cause too many people apparently give a crap that their friend hates Mondays, found a funny cat picture, or are too lazy to talk in person.

I don't even own a cell phone, haven't logged into my facebook in years either. It disgusted me then, I'm scared to imagine now.

reply to post by Biigs


many times people don't even have to be texting.
people don't show common courtesy. when i was young (back in the 1970's) living in a small town, people would share the sidewalk, grocery isle, office hallway, etc. now no one budges from thier path. everyone seems to be guilty of it. young and old. male and female. it isn't just a phone thing, it's a culture thing. but phone users are exceptionally bad for the terrible manners.

I do not get out of the way for people walking and texting into my path. They'll either realize it quick, or walk right into me. So far, almost all of them have pretty much known what they did, and that they were in the wrong. Only a couple actually wondered why I didn't see them. I answered, "I did, but if I was a light pole, it would have hurt a lot more, so I figured I'd do you a solid."

I just don't move out of the way.. walk straight and stiffen yourself for the impact... and the following sounds of the phone hitting the floor.

To all the people that text and walk.. do what i do.. if i have to text right away, i stop, go near standing object with my back against it, text, and continue walking.

Originally posted by Gazrok
"I did, but if I was a light pole, it would have hurt a lot more, so I figured I'd do you a solid."

Genius, i think im gong to try this.

I ride a motorbike and i have a very heavy armored leather jacket, i might try this while waring that!

Maybe make a game of it, "textwalk chicken"

It is hilarious when you see a group of these folks all walking and starring at their phones and you scream, "HEADS UP" and watch as only one or two look to see whats going on and they all bump into each other.


Whenever one of these folks bumps into me I look them in the eyes and say, "Welcome . . . to the real world."