Ten minutes at a busy intersection in downtown San Francisco will yield frightening results.

I do that too, I stay out of traffic, and I don't see the problem. Of everyday experiences I'd just as soon miss out on, staring at another DONT WALK sign is near the top of the list. When I want to spend time being creative, I wander around a park aimlessly and ignore my phone; navigating busy streets is just enough hassle that it doesn't work for me.

A colleague of mine has turned this into a game: "Count the Zombies"

We all likely personally know a person that SMSs all day, especially if you have a teenager.

However, seeing somebody on their phone briefly doesn't tell you anything. How sure can you be that that passing glance at a person while they were on their phone wasn't the first and only time of the day?

What percent of people fit this criteria? I'd wager that a good portion of them only moderately use their devices. It just seems when you are seen by others doing something you rarely do, they assume you do it all day every day and are obsessed.

tldr; People watching isn't an indicator of how often individual people do things, just how many people are doing something at any given time.

I think that was the point of the basic argument.

Matt was saying that lots of people as a whole have a hard time focusing. Sure, there are people that can focus here and there but so many people are tied to their devices that it can be demonstrated as a trend. While every trend has anomalies, those anomalies don't mean that the trend is nonexistent.