BBC's un-news report on Tokyo 'dumbwalking'

[Taro Toporific]

Japan enters the era of smartphones and 'dumbwalking'
--Japan has entered the 'dumbwalking' era: Will it change Japanese phone etiquette, notably the best in the world?---
BBC | July 14, 2014
...More than half of all Japanese now own a smartphone and the proportion is rising fast.
But with that rise has grown another phenomenon - the smartphone walk.
It's that glacial pace people only adopt when they're staring at a phone screen - their head down, arms outstretched, looking like zombies trying to find human prey.
Researchers here have found people don't just walk more slowly when they're on smartphones, their field of vision is reduced to 5% of what it should be, and some are worrying what this means for Shibuya.
m0Ar!~

VLC-schoolgirl.jpg

↑ Japanese schoolgirl doesn't quite get the concept of the VLC media player on her keitai.

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[Samurai_Jerk]

Japanese people not pay attention to their surroundings when they walk down the street? Say it ain't so!!!

[Wibble]

Oh yeah, this has only been happening recently as "Japan has been a late adopter when it comes to smartphones." No one ever used to walk around looking at their 'phones before.

[matsuki]

Japanese people not pay attention to their surroundings when they walk down the street? Say it ain't so!!!

Oh yeah, this has only been happening recently as "Japan has been a late adopter when it comes to smartphones." No one ever used to walk around looking at their 'phones before.

I think the write must just be a newb to Japan as the Japanese clearly invented dumbwalking well before the first iphone ever appeared...

[IparryU]

Oh yeah, this has only been happening recently as "Japan has been a late adopter when it comes to smartphones." No one ever used to walk around looking at their feet before.

FTFY

[kurogane]

I think the write must just be a newb to Japan as the Japanese clearly invented dumbwalking well before the first iphone ever appeared...

Every Oldbie ever just thanked you. Yet another thing you simply can't explain to the folks at home.

PS what was "FTFY" again, like IPU just wrote?

[Russell]

PS what was "FTFY" again, like IPU just wrote?

Fucked This For You...

[kurogane]

HAHAHA. That actually fucked me for a second. Tanks.

[yanpa]

We need these...

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[matsuki]

If it's anything like the anti-arukitabako ones, the arrows on staircases, etc. they will just be ignored. I've just been slightly hip checking the assholes who run into me on the street. If you time it right, no one can tell what you did and yet it sends them flying.

[wagyl]

It looks like gullible still is not in the dictionary: it was a stunt/exercise for a TV program. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/tv-show- ... c-sidewalk

[legion]

Currently in the UK, can confirm the Brits combine mobes and wide hips making steering small people thru the shopping center carpark a slalom.