A TIME AND A PLACE

There’s a time and a place for everything and while I do tend to have a good old moan in this column about things that other people do that get on my nerves, I must confess to also having been  guilty of what I’m going have a whinge about this time.

If you’ve been on social media at all this week or any national news websites you will probably be aware of a story emanating from Antwerp where it appeared a text walking lane had been introduced into a busy street.

A place where people could walk safely looking at their mobiles without having to pay attention to what’s going on around them as long as they stay carefully nestled inbetween the white lines that separate them from those going about their business out in the world of reality.

It all turned out to be a big publicity stunt by a mobile phone company of course but hands up how many of us thought maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

How many times a day do you get stuck behind someone walking at snail’s pace as they stare zombielike at the thing glowing in their palm , fingers moving like lightning as they reel off messages hither and thither whilst never once looking up to see what might be occurring outside the confines of that little glass screen.

Or had to make a split second decision about how to get out of the way of a sudden obstacle because the person coming towards you is clearly blissfully unaware of what’s unfolding right in front of their noses.

And of course I can’t make such accusations about other people’s shortcomings while in possession of handheld technology without admitting to my own misdemeanours.

For just last week whilst in the throes of updating my facebook profile with what I thought was a particularly witty status I misjudged where I was , took what I assumed to be the right turning  and looked up only just in time to discover I was walking straight into a dead end alley.

I didn’t look particularly intelligent having to turn round and walk back the way that I’d just come that day I would imagine and never did the message to pay less attention to our phones until it was safe to do so, hit home quite so hard as it did the following day when I saw a couple of parents in charge of young tots in buggies.

Eyes fixed firmly on the text scrolling up on their mobile, their precious ones sit in a carriage that weaves precariously from side to side as it is steered singlehandedly along the pavement.

 Its lucky really that the short and stout fortysomething coming the opposite way has had the foresight to pass by between them and the edge of the kerb or the pushchair might have been hitching an early ride home on a bus or car bumper.

So like I said at the top of this column maybe we need to learn that there’s a time and a place for everything.

And whether or not our status is updated shouldn’t be a higher priority than our safety .