Rise of the smartphone zombies as tech is ‘making us blind’ and placing hundreds of thousands in danger
Britain is at risk of becoming a nation of smartphone zombies as we’re all so glued to our devices. And it could cause us serious harm, experts are warning.
More than half of people are putting themselves in danger by constantly staring at their screens wherever they are, including near busy main roads. Research even suggests phones aren’t just stealing our time, they’re stealing our situational awareness too.
A Green Flag study found 54% of Brits – around 30 million people – admit they walk close to busy roads while staring at their devices. Even more alarmingly, a third say they ‘scroll and stroll’ while crossing the road.
New research even suggests screens aren’t just stealing our time, they’re stealing our situational awareness too. A study by breakdown provider Green Flag (part of the Aviva Group), found 54% of Brits – aound 30 million people – admit they walk close to busy roads while glued to their mobiles. Even more alarming, 34% say they “scroll and stroll” while crossing the road.
Screens aren’t just stealing our time, they’re stealing our situational awareness too(Image: Getty Images)
Among pedestrians distracted by screens, 54% admit they’ve tripped off a kerb, 39% have walked into a signpost or bollard, while 15% say they’ve collided with a car and 16% with a bicycle.
Gen-Z are worst hit: 71% of 18–24-year-olds say they look at their phone while walking next to roads, and 53% admit doing it while crossing. Sarah Warley, founder of neurodiversity app BeBright.ai, says our brains were never built for the modern attention trap.
She exclusively told the Daily Star: “Your brain evolved to scan the world constantly for potential threats. Eyes up, ears open, constantly checking who is nearby and what is moving.
“It happens without you noticing, and it kept your ancestors alive. Look down at a phone and, instead, you are drawn into a world which distracts you and draws you in.
Walking into a lamppost
“When you are drawn into gazing at your screen, your peripheral vision narrows, and you stop listening to the surrounding world. Your sense of where your body is in space stops updating.”
She further explained: “The threat system doesn’t switch off, though. It just gets pointed at the screen instead. We are fed a never-ending stream of threats and dangers, a world our evolution did not equip us to deal with.”
She said: “So you get all the alarm and none of the useful information. Your body is braced for danger while you walk into a lamppost.”
Dominique Antiglio(Image: Supplied)
Asked if we’re becoming blind to what’s right in front of us, Warley responded: “Not blind. Busy.
“Attention is a spotlight, not a floodlight. Whatever it is pointed at gets seen, and the rest genuinely does not register.
“That is why people miss their stop, miss a step, miss a friend waving at them.” She continued: “We are wired to look at bad news, because spotting the threat first is what kept us alive.
Proactive, not intrusive
“The difference is that the bad news never runs out now.” And while she rejects the idea we’re “literally becoming dumber”, Warley warns: “IQ has not dropped; we are still intelligent, but our brains love finding the easiest route to doing a task, so if you give it a calculator, Satnav or AI it will use it.”
“When smartphones constantly compete for our attention, we lose focus on the people and world around us,” Miranda Collins, Head of UK at Plaud, the world’s number one AI note-taking brand, said. “Technology should support our personal intent and focus, not constantly interrupt it.”
She added: “Smartphones have trained us to look at a screen instead of being present.” Collins explained: “Technology should be proactive without being intrusive.
54% of Brits – aound 30 million people – admit they walk close to busy roads while glued to their mobiles(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
“It should understand what we’re trying to achieve, work quietly in the background and let human intent lead the interaction.” Dominique Antiglio, Sophrologist and founder of online Sophrology platform BeSophro, says screens train a different kind of attention – and it changes how we experience the world.
She said: “Reading a long format is different than if we are scrolling on social media or reacting to every notification. For the latter, we are in a mode to be prompted, rather than moving our attention voluntarily.”
Antiglio added: “If our days become filled with constant notifications and scrolling, it means that our attention is ‘always on’ and divided, which is tiring for the brain… Without moments to breathe, recentre, and reconnect with ourselves, it also becomes harder to connect meaningfully with others or read social cues.”
Are we becoming blind to the physical world? “In a sense, yes – not because our eyes have changed, but because our attention has learned to default inward to the screen, rather than outward to our environment,” Antiglio said.
She revealed: “I’d say it’s dulling [our instincts] rather than stripping them away. Our instinct to sense danger, read a room or notice another person is still there – it’s just being frequently overridden by a device that’s engineered to hold our attention, and it can be relearned with practice.”
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