Alright admit it, we have all done it at one time or another while walking with phone in hand, we have lowered our eyes and heads to read a text message on making a comment on our timeline on a social media platform.
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I am guilty of doing it and have had co-workers remind me to look up before I bump into a wall. There are some funny videos out there of people walking into water displays at malls, but it’s no joking matter because more and more people are losing their lives from walking and texting as well as driving while texting.
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The Highway Safety Association has showed a definite increase in the number of people killed in 2016 by a vehicle while the victim was either walking or bicycling and using technology or texting.
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You may be surprised at who are actually texting our teens while they are driving the car…Helicopter parents! According to an article in the Huffington Post, some parents apparently can’t resist texting their teenagers while they are driving.
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They hover over them, constantly checking on their well-being. But in all their good intentions these parents who text while their teen is driving is actually putting their child in greater harm’s way – so stop it!
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There is also another danger to texting while walking – Tech Neck!
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Bad posture from constant texting on your smartphone or other electronic device is real. You would be amazed at just how much weight you carry around your neck when it’s in a tilted position for an extended period of time, “It’s a lot of load, an amazing amount of weight to be carrying around your neck.”
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Just how much load does that constant downward-looking gaze put on the neck muscles?
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There is a good article written by Dr. David Wilderman, entitled, Can Smart Phones And Texting Really Be Causing My Neck, Shoulder, and Back Pain?
“The human head weighs on average between 12-15 pounds, but the more forward your head is in your posture can cause this to increase up to 5X! Can you imagine walking around with a 60 pound weight tied to your head?
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Let me explain it to you this way…picture a waiter or waitress carrying a tray, and on this tray is a bowling ball (a bowling ball on average weighs 8-10 lbs for a woman, and 15-16 lbs for a man, just about the weight of a human head!). But here’s the trouble…the bowling ball wants to keep sliding to the front of the tray.
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If we think about the server’s arm as being analogous to our neck, and the bowling ball sliding forward on the tray as equating to our head, just how tired is that server’s arm going to be by the end of the day? Well, that’s what your neck can feel like with a forward head posture!”
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Smartphones, Tablets and other electronic devices are killing more than our posture so raise your head and stay safe on the road and in the streets!
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Let’s chat: Are you guilty of texting while walking or driving?
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