Walking while using your phone

Using a phone while you walk changes how you walk. Texting and reading slow you down, shorten your steps, bend your neck and make it harder to keep a straight line, and they take attention away from traffic and obstacles. For posture, walking with the phone is where a lot of the day’s head down time quietly adds up. This page covers what the studies found and simple changes that help.

What happens to your walk

Change while texting or reading	Source
Slower walking, slowest while texting	26 adults in a laboratory study1
Head held in a flexed position, less movement at the neck	Same study1
More sideways drift from a straight path	Same study1
Reduced speed, step length, stride length and cadence	Meta-analysis of 25 studies2

In the laboratory study, the head and trunk moved together as one unit to keep the screen steady. That helps reading, but it reduces the head movement people normally use to keep their balance and steer, which may explain the drift. About a third of participants reported a previous accident while texting.¹

What it adds to your posture

Phone use while sitting already accounts for many hours of neck flexion. Students who report a text neck posture and heavy phone use also report more neck problems.³ Walking with the phone in hand adds to that total, often without noticing. The posture and what helps it are covered in text neck.

What to do

1. Stop to text. Step to the side, reply, then walk on. It is safer and better for your neck.
2. Use audio. Voice messages, calls through your earbuds and audio directions keep your eyes up.
3. Pocket the phone on familiar routes.
4. Lift the phone to eye level for directions you must check, rather than dropping your head.
5. Walk tall. Cues are in walking posture.

Who it affects most

Heavy phone use is most common in young adults and students, see study posture. The gait changes were not limited to them: the meta-analysis also included older people and people with motor or cognitive conditions.²

Footnotes

1. Texting and walking: strategies for postural control and implications for safety. 2014. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Does texting while walking affect spatiotemporal gait parameters in healthy adults, older people, and persons with motor or cognitive disorders? A systematic review and meta-analysis. 2023. ↩ ↩²

3. Prevalence of text neck posture, smartphone addiction, and its association with neck disorders among university students. 2022. ↩