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Death by Smartphone

My wife and I are avid participants in one of the most dangerous sports nowadays:  We walk.

Yesterday was a perfect example of the dangers of walking.

As we were finishing an eight-mile walk on a beautiful sunny and warm winter day in a quiet neighborhood in our hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona, we began crossing a little-used side street, which had a stop sign at the corner.  Not seeing any cars turning into the street or coming out of the street, we stepped off the sidewalk and into the crosswalk.

After we took a couple of steps, a car appeared out of nowhere, coming out of the street in the lane opposite from the one we were standing in.  We stopped in case the car didn't stop at the sign. 

Suddenly, the car crossed the center line and veered into the opposite lane, the lane where we were standing.  The car headed straight towards us, as if the driver was intent on killing us.  As we jumped out of the way, I yelled at the driver, "WHAT THE F—K ARE YOU DOING, YOU F---ING IDIOT?" The twenty-something gave me a startled look, apparently shocked that he had almost run over two people.  He mouthed "Sorry" and drove on.  In his left hand was a smartphone with the screen lit up.  

We've learned over the years to walk on sidewalks facing traffic along busy streets, so that at least we would have a slight chance of diving out of the way and escaping death in the event that a car veers onto the sidewalk.  It's a real danger:  Three walkers have died over the last couple of years from being run over by cars jumping the curb along a busy street near out house.

What we see in the cars going by is frightening.  About a third of the drivers are fiddling with their smartphones as they travel at 45 mph in heavy traffic.  At 45 mph, a car travels 66 feet per second, which means that in only three seconds of looking at a cellphone, a driver will travel 198 feet, more than enough time to plow into the rear end of stopped car, or into a cyclist, or into a mother with a baby in a carriage.

Walkers on smartphones can be just as dangerous, but at least they are only a danger to themselves.  There are stories of people walking in front of trains and other moving objects.  Some walkers have walked off the path along the Grand Canyon and over the edge.  I wonder if they're still holding their smartphone when they hit bottom after falling 6,000 ft.  Maybe they take a selfie on the way down.

Come to think of it, why would anyone want to be in a virtual world on a smartphone at the Grand Canyon instead of taking in the scenery?  Imagine visitors to the Canyon being asked by family or friends upon returning home what they thought of their visit.  "It was great," they respond.  "I updated my Facebook, sent out 20 tweets, and watched an episode of Saturday Night Live."

Amazingly, with all of their smartphone apps, including calendars and time management apps, millennials are terrible at time management.  For example, if you ask them when they'll be available to meet for dinner, they say that they won't know until they hear back from friends on their plans for the rest of the evening after dinner.  They keep you hanging until about a half-hour before dinner. 

Sometimes my wife and I walk through college campuses and observe the herd behavior of students at class breaks.  Ninety percent of them are pecking on their smartphones while walking, completely oblivious to their surroundings, like small-brained chickens pecking the ground in a barnyard as a wolf sneaks up on them.  It's too bad that they aren't reflecting on the leftist nostrums that they just heard in class.  After all, the purpose of college is to learn to think independently, not to be a Bounty towel that absorbs without question whatever spills out of a professor's brain.

That brings us to the biggest danger of smartphones and the corresponding barrage of text messages, tweets, and phone conversations:  They don't leave time for quiet reflection, introspection, and deep thinking.  Instead, they are a Pavlovian device that shortens attention spans and short circuits brain synapses.  It's a perfect device for marketers, propagandists, politicians, and ignoramuses to control the population.

Regarding politicians and ignoramuses (but I repeat myself), below are tweets from Sen, Chuck Grassley, Republican from Iowa, as printed in the Dec. 30 edition of the Wall Street Journal.  It's hard to decide what's worse:  that a U.S. Senator tweets such gobbledygook, that he learns history from the History Channel instead of reading books like "The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy," or that there are Americans who sign up for tweets from such morons.

Feb. 1, 2012: I turn to History channel frequently bc I like history. There is nevr any history unless u r an antique dealer. Change name!

Feb. 25, 2012: Just love history. So occasionally I turn to history channel. "mud cats" when wi they put history back on the channel

March 18, 2012: History. No history. Axe man Timber Nothing historical. Back to FOX. Sigh. Suggest name to change channel name

March 25, 2012: Since History channel doesnt hv history anymore i advise National Geographic channel. At least that channel has some history

June 23, 2012: I've turned to history. Channel. Several times this wkend always Pawn Shop. No history. Change nAme of channel to no history

June 28, 2013: History on the history channel. Yes history. Attila the Hun Rite now

June 27, 2014: There is history on the History Channel rite now Tune in before they go to swamp man

Dec. 25, 2016: Hurry Hurry watch some history on History Channel before it disappears for something not so historical

Dec. 29, 2016: If u don't like history now is time to go HISTORY CHANNEL and u can watch PAWN STARS

Einstein probably never would have come up with his Theory of Relativity if he had owned a smartphone.  He wouldn't have sat in his room for hours a day, for weeks at a time, thinking about space and time.  And Jonas Salk wouldn't have developed the polio vaccine; Thomas Crapper, the toilet; Henry Ford, the assembly line; and Al Gore, the Internet.

Oh, let's not forget Charles Darwin and his theories of evolution, including the theory of the survival of the fittest.  One wonders if humans will survive the smartphone.  The answer is probably no for my wife and me, unless we give up walking.

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