How Texting Actually Changes the Way We Walk

It's clear that texting impairs our ability to walk. If it didn't, we wouldn't have so many war stories of walking into trees/each other/street lights/stationary objects. Here's a particularly embarrassing anecdote, from an anonymous Atlantic video executive producer, who was texting while walking through Washington, D.C., during Polar Vortex, Part I:

"I walked into a low-hanging tree branch and spilled coffee all over my jacket. It was a water-proof jacket, and the little beads of coffee froze to the jacket. Someone was in front of me and saw everything and gave me a look like 'what are you doing?'"