

Could smartphones have caused people to ignore a gunman & murder? - Killah911
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/tech/san-francisco-shooter-phone/index.html?c=us

======
Morgawr
I got my very first smartphone last month, I've never been much of a phone
person. This is to say that even before I owned one, I've always had ways to
entertain and immerse myself in my own world. Especially during large commute
times, I used to nap, read books and newspapers, do homeworks.. I'm pretty
sure that if such thing happened to me then, I wouldn't have noticed either.
This scares me a lot but the base idea, imo, is that people tend to isolate
themselves during daily routine, and all assume a safe and sound environment
and if such sporadic events happen, none of us really could expect them
beforehand.

This is to say (tl;dr), while phoned might have amplified this effect, they
are in no way the cause and the article seems to be a bit biased against them.

