Caution: Watch out for texters

An epidemic running rampant throughout American River College hallways, bathrooms, and anywhere else you can find more than one person at a time. Your fellow ARC students have been braving this adventure, cell phone in hand, with no idea what lays ahead until – wham – their knee smacks one of the new tables in the Liberal Arts wing and they're down like Peter Griffin.

Texting while walking is not only hazardous to your health, but to those around you as well. Dr. Jo Lumsden, PhD in Human Computer Interaction, speaking at the British Science Festival, said laboratory experiments had shown the brain couldn't handle navigating on foot while texting. But what does she know, right? She just doesn't understand how busy our lives are.

People check their Facebook, use instant messaging to chat, and even hold video conversations on their phone – all alongside the ever-dangerous texting while walking. Everyone wants to stay in touch and make sure they're not the outcast. Social acceptance amongst peers is almost a psychological necessity that will never go away, nor should it, but is it so far of a stretch to believe that we're devolving into our own Gollum's wanting – nay, requiring – our little ‘precious' cell phone. Pathetic. How we learned to stop being afraid and just run into each other.

"First it was just doctors and drug dealers" who felt compelled to always be on, says Naomi S. Baron, professor of linguistics at American University and author of "Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World." It's now developed into insecurity. People fear that if they don't respond fast enough, then that person "won't be my best friend." If you're in such a position that you think they're not going to be your friend if you don't respond fast enough? Chances are they're not really your friend in the first place.

We get bored with our surroundings, Baron says. Holding a single conversation just isn't enough, especially not in person. "Because you're supposed to keep all these balls in the air rather than be bored by 'listening' to one person's conversation."

Fear not, communication junkies, there's an app for that. Type n Walk, developed for the iPhone, is an application that uses the camera on the back of the cell phone to capture the scene in front of you and use it as a background to what you're texting for anything from an e-mail to a tweet or status update. God forbid you communicate face-to-face, that's just an immense waste of time.