Mobile phones weren’t named that for nothin’. Being able to go for a wander while messaging your mates is essentially a mandatory life skill in 2015, but the safety-minded folk at the University of Newcastle have deemed it fit to warn staff via email about the ~ v. dangerous ~ practice.
The official “safety alert” tells faculty “when using your smart phone… you’re not in full control with the action of walking because you can’t see the path in front of you.” The warning comes after two “self-reported” incidents of text-walking induced injuries.
If they encounter a text-walker in the wild, faculty have been instructed to give them a bit of a talking-to.
Reactions from staff – who obviously have the brains to work at a university, much less operate a phone while in motion – have been 100% predictable.
One staff member unleashed the snark told The Newcastle Herald they eagerly “await the [warning] about breathing and chewing.”
Another reckons the whole thing is a case of simple OH&S arse-covering, saying “I suppose in the world we’re living in, common sense doesn’t really exist any more and it’s about ‘warn me or I’ll sue you’.”
A report from earlier this year found that walkers engaged with their mobiles weren’t any more likely to bump into obstacles or trip while on the move.
In a boost for walkers everywhere, a researcher said “I think the participants recognised that their brain was overloaded and to protect themselves, became more cautious and slowed down to make it safer”.
Just use your noggins on this one, world.
Story via Fairfax.
Image: Jiangang Wang via Getty.
Image: Jiangang Wang via Getty.
