Can iPhones influence course of human evolution?

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Researchers at the University of Bath carried out a study and found that people are no more likely to stumble or bump into things while texting. When the researchers put their subjects through an obstacle course, they expected to find that the people answering text messages or solving mathematical problems on their phones were more likely to hit things.

The hypothesis makes sense – you’d think someone whose eyes and mind were distracted to walk into more obstacles than someone who was merrily wandering along without anything to take their mind off clearing the course.

While the group using phones completed the course more slowly, they didn’t have any more trouble than the regular group. That’s because they moved in a different way – adapting to the decreased awareness by slowing down, taking shorter steps and allowing for obstacles by making bigger movements.

Checking our phones has physically changed the way we walk and we aren’t in any danger as a result (though try telling that to someone who just walked into a lamp post).

If checking our smartphones has already changed the way our bodies and minds work together, what other effects could today’s technology have on us? If we carried on using them in the same way for thousands of years, could our iPhones and laptops actually affect the way humans evolve?

Read full, original post: Will the iPhone influence human evolution?

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