Texting while walking is not a good mix. Just ask the “Fountain Lady.” Over 3.5 million viewers saw Cathy Cruz Marrero, 49, fall into a fountain at the Berkshire mall in Pennsylvania. Cathy was walking and texting and obviously not paying attention to where she was going. Cathy should have had the Road SMS app installed on her cell phone. It overlays the texting screen as it uses your camera to give you live video of where you’re walking. So now you can be a texting pedestrian.
Hey Fountain Lady! Can You Text and Chew Gum at the Same Time?
Fountain Lady is threatening to sue all involved in posting the video of her. While most humor is usually based on someone else’s misfortune, it is unfortunate that Ms. Marrero was caught on video being so unconscious. I can see her point of view about being humiliated by a viral video clip, but if she had kept her mouth shut, and not appeared on nationwide TV (Good Morning America, Thursday, January 20, 2011), no one would have known it was her. The video didn’t show her face. Not only has she opened a can of worms as far as revealing her identity, she inadvertently opened herself up to legal troubles as well. Apparently she had outstanding warrants and is facing five felony counts, including theft by deception and receiving stolen property, at least according to a blog posting by Imtiaz Farooq on Gather.com.
Road SMS is a cool app that alters your reality. If you can get over the visual confusion of walking and texting while actually seeing a video of where you’re headed, the app could prove to be invaluable. It would certainly be an improvement over walking into people (or fountains) at malls. I’m not so sure about crossing streets and stepping out into traffic, but perhaps with practice you could safely maneuver such obstacles. Of course reliance on this app is only good for where the camera is actually pointing. Any peripheral activity is excluded from the video screen. So look out for the skateboarder approaching on your right.
Fountain Lady’s video has caused quite a stir. Want to view it? Follow this link for a good laugh Fountain Lady on YouTube.
So can you walk and text at the same time? Are you naturally clumsy like Fountain Lady or more adept at multi-tasking? Inquiring minds want to know.
[...] was so busy texting while she was walking in a mall that she walked into a fountain. See my blog Hey Fountain Lady. There is an app for texting while walking. It’s called Road SMS. It uses your cell phone camera [...]