“I don’t think people realize how distracted they are and how much their situational awareness changes when they’re walking and using their phones,” said Wayne Guiang, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Florida.
In fact, our devices can cause what some experts call “unintentional blindness.” The screen in your hands can alter your mood, your gait, and your posture.
When we walk and use our phones at the same time, we reflexively adjust how we move, Guiang said. Video footage of pedestrians showed that people using phones walked about 10 percent slower than their undistracted counterparts.
“You see a number of gait changes that reflect the slowing down,” said Patrick Crowley, project director at the Technical University of Denmark, who studied the biomechanics of walking while using a phone. “People take shorter steps and spend more time with both feet on the ground.”
These changes can impede pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk.
Looking at your smartphone while walking, instead of standing upright, can also increase the strain on your neck and upper back muscles.
How does this affect your mood?
One study found that the more people used their phones while walking on a treadmill, the higher their cortisol, the stress hormone, levels.
A 2023 study investigated the psychological effects of walking in an outdoor park while looking at a phone.
"Generally, when people go for a walk, they feel better afterward, and that's what we saw in the group that walked without using their phones," said Elizabeth Broadbent, a co-author of the study and a professor of health psychology.
"In the groups that walked with phone use, these effects were reversed," she added. Instead of feeling more positive after walking, people felt less positive.
The negative effects stem from a decreased connection with their surroundings.
The Dangers of Distracted Walking
Most of us know that walking while using a phone can be risky.
Dr. Jiang’s studies investigated the link between “distracted walking related to phones” and emergency room visits.
He identified nearly 30,000 walking injuries caused by phones. While many of these incidents occurred on streets and sidewalks, about a quarter of them happened at home.