It was a miserable morning in New York, rain falling heavily and a 30 mph wind that made holding an umbrella difficult. Yet a man walked briskly up Fifth Avenue, balancing his umbrella and dodging pedestrians as he texted from his smart phone.
As a sheer physical act, it was almost Olympian in the strength, dexterity and concentration required.
It was also completely ridiculous.
It was RAINING. And cold. The man was, let’s presume, minutes from some destination. At any moment, he could spear a fellow pedestrian with his umbrella because he was only marginally paying attention to where he was going. What message could possibly be so important that it couldn’t wait?
While smart phones and other electronic devices changed popular culture by offering an ability to always stay connected, they have so swiftly turned into such a compelling need that a simple walk down the street is considered wasted time.
One too many times stepping around a shuffling pedestrian immersed in e-mail led me to conduct a social experiment. I decided to count the number of people I saw distracted by their electronic devices during my 25-minute morning walk to work from New York’s Grand Central Station to the far West Side.
Some ground rules: Cell-phone conversations count, along with texting and looking at the devices. I didn’t consider listening to music to be a distraction — that, um, would require counting myself — but people who looked at their iPods while walking made the list. Pulling over to the side to use an electronic device didn’t count, because that’s what a courteous pedestrian should be doing.
So those three construction workers who stood together talking on their phones off Fifth Avenue were safe from wrath. Same for the woman who frequently asks for spare change next to St. Michael’s Church on 33rd Street when…