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 .
