Our Takes

Hey, watch where you're going!

London sidewalks may soon be safer places for distracted technophiles. There's a proposal to wrap the city's lampposts, signs and garbage cans with padding.

Why? Believe it or not, new data shows that 6 million Brits have been injured by walking into stationary objects along the street while texting on their cell phones.

The story is further evidence that as we get more connected electronically, we're losing touch with the real world. To the point that we're becoming oblivious to our surroundings.

John Bambenek, writing for MercatorNet, suggested that applying padding to poles is approaching the problem from the wrong direction.

"We are meant to understand that walking down a street and enjoying the fresh air is simply wasting time in which we could be 'getting things done,'" he wrote at the end of March.

"Something of human dignity is lost when people are always worker bees in the great hive of the city," Bambenek said.