Paul Saffo on Texting (While Walking)

Link to September 19 Paul Saffo journal post, "Beware of PedTEXTrians!"

Excerpt:
Lets face it, most of us have enough trouble doing one thing at a time. Put a phone in the hands of a walker, and the consequent diversion of attention lowers their IQ by 10 points. Put a Blackberry in their hand and the act of reading and typing while walking causes their IQ to plummet even further. There are just some things that shouldn’t be done at the same time. For example if you like to birdwatch while you hike, don’t get interested in mushroom hunting, or you will spend your entire time looking up and down, up and down. Walking while tweeting or texting or IMing is thus just plain dumb. Dumb, but not a crime.

[Paul Saffo is a forecaster and essayist with over two decades experience exploring long-term technological change and its practical impact on business and society. He teaches at Stanford University and is a Visiting Scholar in the Stanford Media X research network.]