Dude I have a hard enough time walking as it is, never mind adding things into the mix!

I just don't understand the problem. My best friend's first memory of me is watching me walk through the high school campus with my nose in a book. I didn't walk into any trees, people, signs, plaques, or cars. I used to read while walking all the time, simply because I didn't want to put my book down. I still occasionally cook while reading, and I don't run into anything although, admittedly, I am more familiar with my kitchen than with most of the streets I walk down.

Can texting really take so much concentration that people lose ALL awareness of their surroundings? Do I have some kind of sonar? If so, it works on subways and buses too, since I always used to read while commuting, and never once missed my stop or fell off the tram.

Maybe these people are just really really good at focusing on one thing at a time. Such single-minded concentration could be all kinds of good if they would choose a better task or place to do it.

Absent