Walking into lamp posts

If you are one of those who have been persuaded that men cannot multi-task, while women can, then think again. Apparently neither can do so. Clifford Nass, Professor of Communications at Stanford University, has concluded in a study that once we focus on one thing our minds cannot also tackle another. To be more precise, what he found was that if you are walking while talking on a mobile phone (cellphone), the chances are that you will have an accident. And another study showed that in Ohio over 1,000 people needed emergency treatment in 2008 as a result of injuries caused while talking on the phone or texting.

So while we may have thought that outlawing the use of phones while driving was enough to keep everyone safer, the same prohibition may also need to be applied to using the phone while walking. In fact, you should probably only use it while sitting in your living room, perhaps strapped into your armchair with a seatbelt. Indeed, maybe we shouldn’t have mobile phones at all; and there’s a thought.

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Tags: cellphones, mobile phones, multi-tasking

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