Article:

Smartphones have become an ordinary accompanier of our walks and creatednew modes of appropriation of public space. This study aims to research thesemodes by observing the altering visual attention and walking behavior of peopleusing smartphones in public space, and in this way, to reveal the emergence ofdifferent types of post-flâneurs. In order to address these aims, 346 (195 females,151 males) smartphone users were observed in a central public square in Ghent,Belgium for seven days in 10-minute time intervals. Each person's gender, age,number of accompanies and their dominant mode of smartphone usage(s) wereidentified. Afterward, each person's walking timeline was organized into secondsand coded according to their focus of visual attention in 24 different modes whichgrouped under the three gaze types; visual attention on the environment, on theenvironment through the smartphone screen, and on the smartphone screen.Results of the descriptive statistics, multivariate graph, and rhythm-basedin-depth analysis show that different types of smartphone activities affect visualattention and speed differently. Different types of post-flâneurs such asnavigators and photo takers were identified based upon their high percentage ofvisual attention on the environment and slower walking speed. The study alsorevealed the frequent presence of phone-walkers (who walk while only holdingthe smartphone) and smartphone zombies (who walk slowly and without attentionto their surrounding) in public space. In addition to these, our research revealedrapid smartphone zombies who walk faster than the average walking speed, afinding contrary to the former studies reviewed.