Chapter 6:
How We Connect
Texting While Walking, Casey Neistat
Digital tools are deeply woven into the fabric of our everyday lives — so deeply, in fact, that we are often unaware of the effects our digital behavior can have on ourselves and others. Seeking to shed some light on this phenomenon, this video offers viewers a wake-up call about the dangers of texting while walking. Should we really be so quick, it asks, to engage in a practice that can, at times, be both unsafe and ill mannered? Casey Neistat is a filmmaker who lives in New York City.
Discussion and Writing Questions
After watching Texting While Walking, consider the questions below.
Discussion:
1. The video opens with a heading that reads: “Texting While Walking: A Dangerous Game.” What is your response to this opening? In your view, is it valid to treat texting like a game? What point do you think Neistat is trying to make by using this terminology?
2. “Walking the streets texting,” says Neistat, “isn’t much safer than walking them with a blindfold on.” Do you agree? Have you had a personal experience of texting while walking that proves Neistat’s point?
3. This video concludes with the statement that it is intended to serve as a public service announcement. How do you respond to this statement? Do you think this video performs a “public service”? Why or why not?
Writing:
4. Neistat subtitles this video “A Guide for Texting Safety and Etiquette.” In an essay, create your own version of this guide. What do you think are the most essential steps for remaining safe while texting? What are the key etiquette challenges this practice poses? And how can they best be avoided?
5. “Texting while walking,” declares Neistat, “may lack the social stigmas of drunk driving or smoking crystal meth, but it can be just as dangerous.” Write an essay in which you respond to this statement. Do you buy the analogy Neistat offers here? Is it valid to compare texting to these more overtly hazardous activities? Why or why not?
6. To what extent does this video remind you of the issues raised by Hannah Rosin (“The Touch-Screen Generation,” 484)? Does the practice of texting while walking strike you as emblematic of the generation Rosin profiles in her essay? How or how not?