Ejercicio B1 · Inglés PAU Valencia Ordinaria solapamiento 2024

TEXT B/TEXTO B

THAT SMARTPHONE IN YOUR HAND CHANGES HOW YOU WALK

One recent study found that a quarter of people crossing intersections were glued to a device, which can cause what some experts call "inattentional blindness." But that screen in your hand also changes your mood and your posture, and hinders your ability to get from point A to point B without running into trouble. When we walk and use a phone at the same time, we reflexively adjust how we move. People on phones walk about 10 percent slower than their undistracted counterparts. People take shorter steps and spend longer time with both feet on the ground.

And if walking makes up a big portion of your daily physical activity, strolling more slowly may have repercussions for your fitness. Besides, looking down at a smartphone while walking can also increase the amount of load, or force, placed on the neck and upper back muscles, which can contribute to symptoms of "text neck."

There's also evidence that walking while using a phone increases the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. Generally, when people go for a walk, they feel better afterwards, and this is found in the phone-free walking people. In the phone-walking ones, these effects were reversed. Instead of feeling more positive after walking, people feel less positive, less happy, less relaxed.

It's important that your attention is on the environment, rather than on your phone. It's also possible that walking and trying to use a phone is simply annoying, and that's why it sours your mood.

Adapted from an article by Markham Heid, The New York Times, 23-1-2024.

B1. Answer the following questions using your own words but taking into account the information in the text. (2 points: 1 point each)

a)

How do smartphones impact on the way we move?

b)

Which are the symptoms of “text neck”?