Smartphone negatives keep piling up
Not only socially unacceptable, but dangerous
How smartphones have changed our lives hit home again this week on election day.
If you’ve ever been to a candidate’s campaign headquarters on election night you will know eyes are typically focused on a huge screen displaying the latest results.
With that collective focus there are groans if the person you have supported is not doing well. There are also shouts of triumph if the candidate is taking poll after poll.
There is an energy in the room — positive or negative — but it is united.
That big screen has now been replaced with individuals clutching smartphones. They are intent on grasping the latest count but instead of the collective groan, sigh or shout of victory the information must be immediately tweeted to someone else who also has a smartphone and is also tweeting the results.
It is hard to say if the upto-the-second information is reaching a wider audience. If you have a smartphone yourself then you already know the results.
It is sad, though, that in the process we have each gone into our own little world and the energy in the room has been sapped.
For all the benefits of smartphones, the negatives keep piling up.
This week a poll by Insights West says two-thirds of Canadians want laws on distracted,. no, not distracted driving — they want it for “distracted walking.”
They want a law forbidding people from using a smartphone while walking on a road or crossing a street. If you’re thinking it is the older generation triggering all of this you are wrong. If you survey only those over 55 years the support for the distracted walking law increases to 80 per cent.
It is rather ironic that the generation that prides itself on safety — mandatory wearing of helmets for children on bicycles and baby car seats being just two examples — is so taken with smartphones they can’t put them down.
Texting while driving is endangering the lives of others significantly. We saw an example this week of death when a truck driver slammed into the back of a bus in California. A photo from the webcam on the dashboard showed a truck driver busy texting moments before the accident.
Most jurisdictions across the country have distracted driving legislation but it is difficult to enforce. Even if there was a camera at every traffic light, where people typically check in with their smartphone, that would not be enough. On the highway you can spot those busy texting. Their vehicle drifts across the lane erratically and speed fluctuates significantly. You finally pass the vehicle and see a smartphone propped up on the steering wheel with the driver texting.
Even if there was a telephone number to report the situation to authorities you would have to stop your vehicle to make the call and what are the chances of authorities actually locating the vehicle and driver?
It is going to take a collective will to recognize this behavior as socially unacceptable.
(Gillian Slade is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to www.medicinehatnews.com/opinions or call her at 403-528-8635.)