Loss of bodily and situational awareness while immersed in our mobiles: What are the implications?

If you've noticed people walking our streets and in public spaces, not looking where they're going while immersed on their mobile phones, it's not your imagination. It is happening everywhere! What is often referred to as 'distracted walking' has been well researched across the world, reducing people's safety and situational awareness, and leading to a variety of injuries and even death.Jacques and Jennifer talk about the implications of this, invoking Pierre Bourdieu's notion of 'habitus', describing how we unconsciously internalise societal ways of doing things and act them out. Thus the 'habitus' of safely navigating footpaths and roads is competing with the (normalised) habitus of being on mobile phones while walking. Most insidiously, our tech giants have evidently made direct inroads into our minds and our bodies on a regular basis.Jennifer and Jacques suggest some political resistance by disconnecting from mobile phones while out and about, at the same time increasing safety and improving mental health.ReferencesBourdieu P 2013, Outline of a theory of practice, UK, Cambridge University Press.Byington K W & Schwebel D C 2013, ‘Effects of mobile Internet use on college student pedestrian injury risk’, Accident Analysis and Prevention, vol.51.Marrapu A 2024, ‘Utilising Technology to Prevent Distracted Walking’, 2024 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference, IEEE.Mikusova, Miroslava; Wachnicka, Joanna; Zukowska, Joanna 2021, ‘Research on the Use of Mobile Devices and Headphones on Pedestrian Crossings--Pilot Case Study from Slovakia’, Safety, vol. 7, no. 1.Ming-I Brandon Lin, Yu-Ping Huang 2017, ‘The impact of walking while using a smartphone on pedestrians’ awareness of roadside events’, Accident Analysis & Prevention, vol. 101.Mingyu Hou, Jianchuan Cheng, Feng Xiao, Chenzhu Wan 2021, 'Distracted behavior of pedestrians while crossing street: A case study in China',  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 18.Nasar J L. & Troyer D 2013, ‘Pedestrian injuries due to mobile phone use in public places’, Accident Analysis and Prevention, vol. 57. 4: 1372872.Nikolaou D, Typa D, Yannis G 2022, ‘Investigation of traffic and safety behaviour of pedestrians while talking on mobile phone ‘Advances in Transportation Studies an international Journal, Special issue, vol. 3.Oh C & LaPointe L 2017, ‘Changes in cognitive load and effects on parameters of gait’, Cogent PsychologyPiazza A J, Knowlden A P,  Hibberd E, Leeper J, Paschal A M, Usdan S 2022, ‘Distracted mobile device use among street-crossing college student pedestrians: an observational approach’, Journal of American College Health, vol. 70, no. 7.Quon P, Lahey K, Grisdale M, Hagel B, Frost G, Belton K, Elliott A 2019, ‘Prevalence of distracted walking with mobile technology: an observational study of Calgary and Edmonton high school students’, Canadian Journal of Public Health, vol. 110.Ropaka M, Nikolaou D, Yannis G 2020, ‘Investigation of traffic and safety behavior of pedestrians while texting or web-surfing’, Traffic Injury Prevention, vol. 21, no. 6.Smith D C., Schreiber K M., Saltos A, Lichenstein S B, Lichenstein R 2013, ‘Ambulatory cell phone injuries in the United States: An emerging national concern’, Journal of Safety Research, vol. 47.Vamshi K K, Kapruwan R, Choudhary P 2024, ‘Understanding distracted pedestrians' risky behaviour: The role of walking and visual characteristics through a field study’, Transportation Research, vol. 101.