Using mobile phones on the go is giving us silly walks, researchers claim
Scientists found walking texters are making over-the-top strides to avoid tripping and bashing into people
MOBILE phones are changing the way people walk as they take giant strides to avoid hazards and passers-by when texting.
Walking texters are adopting over-the-top movements for safety reasons, researchers at an American uni discovered.
The University of Delaware asked 22 volunteers to dial a number on their mobile phone while walking on a treadmill for two minutes.
The walkers wore 62 reflective markers on the arms, trunk, pelvis and legs which were picked up by motion cameras to measure knee flexion, hip movement and leg swing.
This experiment showed that the volunteers used strange exaggerated strides, bending their knees on each step with their ankles fulled flexed, reports.
Scientists concluded the large movements were to naturally step over tripping hazards, negotiate crowds and make up for diminished vision.
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First author Kelly Seymour from the University of Delaware said: “Our results suggest that when dialing a phone while walking, healthy adults adopt a more cautious gait pattern, which may limit the risk of falling."
There were so FEW mistakes in number dialling during the test that it appeared volunteers felt using their phones was more important than walking.
A recent study found that saggy neck caused from looking down your phone and disrupted sleep from handset blue lights is just the tip of the iceberg.
Text-walkers has become such a problem that last year Antwerp in Belgium brought in ‘text walking lanes’ so that they do not irritate or endanger other pedestrians.
Last year University of Bath researchers found we alter the way we walk when we text to avoid accidents, after an experiment involving 30 people aged 18 to 50-years-old.
Lecturer Dr Polly McGuigan said: "“We found that our participants were very good at adapting the way they walk to limit their risk of injury, and there were very few occasions when a participant hit an obstacle. This may be because many of the participants had grown up using a mobile phone and are very used to multi-tasking.”
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