dumbwalking

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From dumb +‎ walking.

Noun[edit]

dumbwalking (uncountable)

  1. (uncommon, humorous) The act of walking while distracted or preoccupied by something else, often looking at a smartphone.
    • 2014 July 14, Alex Marshall, “Japan enters the era of smartphones and 'dumbwalking'”, in BBC[1], archived from the original on 2014-07-15:
      Michael Cucek is a consultant who has lived here for more than 20 years. In his spare time, he writes a popular political blog called Shisaku that has recently been littered with posts about what he calls "dumbwalking".
    • 2018, Richard S. Pinner, Augmented Communication: The Effect of Digital Devices on Face-to-Face Interactions, Springer International Publishing, page 107:
      In Japan, smartphones are extremely popular, although they are often demonised in the media. The issue of ‘dumbwalking’ is a serious problem in Japan, although in Japanese it is known as arukinagara (walking whilst [on the phone]).

See also[edit]