A Mobile Reductio ad Absurdum

According to a report by Anna Lacey, producer of Health Check for the BBC, there is now an app in prototype called CrashAlert. It provides a red-light warning on your mobile device to let you know when a possible collision in your path. In other words it monitors the world around you while you are busy escaping reality by texting or reading your mail. Those interviewed all seem to agree that being distracted by your mobile device while walking is a bad idea. Rather than try to confront the major challenge of changing public habits in the social world, it would appear that the prevailing trend is to provide new technology that will make those habits even worse.