To have been using my phone while walking on the pavement

[untiloneofuscaves]

I’ll hold my hands up and say this is one of those things that I know is really annoying.

I was walking on the outside of the pavement answering an email because I’ve not had a chance all day. I wasn’t weaving and there was probably 5 foot of space to my right.

Two young men (probably mid-20s) saw me and walked right towards me. One bumped his shoulder into me and went “watch where you’re going you fat fuck” and the other said “yeah watch where you’re going fat fucker”. As they walked past me one shouted “fat fuckers like her shouldn’t be allowed to live” and both kept yelling fat fucker as I walked away.

AIBU to think this really isn’t justified?

You know it's not. How is this an AIBU?

You can't really expect people do say that they think their behaviour was reasonable?

It's not remotely justified to speak to anyone that way, it's demeaning and offensive. They were not in the right in the slightest. Vile behaviour.

That said, everyone thinks they are not weaving when on their screens - and they inevitably are - and nothing is so important that you can't find a place to stand still, out of the thoroughfare, and respond to your message then.

i definitely wasn’t wearing. I was answering an email but also need to make my train home, where i won’t have good enough signal to answer.

They were rude twats, and no it's not justified.

You were antisocial. If you need to respond to an email that badly step to one side out of the way and do it.

Two wrongs don’t make a right!

They were rude no doubt about it but walking down while texting is annoying and dangerous.

Very rude of them but (1) it is annoying when people blindly ambling along, eyes on phone, bump into you (doesn’t excuse their very rude comments) and (2) if you’re in London or any big city really, doing this makes you a prime target for e-bike thieves who will relieve you of your phone before you know what’s happening. This has happened to me, and it’s unpleasant and very expensive and inconvenient to resolve (try getting back into all your accounts to change passwords, with 2-factor authentication when you no longer have your phone to receive the codes sent by text message).

Sounds like they were on an ego trip and wanted to make themselves look like big men. And I say this who gets bumped into everyday on my commute by teens on their phones.

I don’t live in London so it’s not a problem for me. I can also be confident that I wasn’t impacting them at all (fairly quiet street) as they had a good five feet of space to walk into. They chose to walk into my path.

What they said is obviously completely unjustified and needlessly nasty. But people walking along on their phones and not looking where they’re going is really bloody annoying!

I'm sorry that happened I am increasingly shocked at how awful people are. I was walking with my elderly father in law and a man shoulder barged into him and told him to "watch where he was effing going". I couldn't believe it!

Then they were just unpleasant twats. I would still be careful using your phone on the street though. What starts in London spreads elsewhere before long. Just today we’ve had a teenager murdered in a stabbing in my pleasant suburban commuter town.

You were annoying, I get sick and tired of people being unaware of their surroundings because they think it's safe and reasonable to be glued to a mobile phone in public.

A completely separate issue is the two louts you encountered...but why you seem to need it verifying that they were ignorant idiots is a bit confusing.

Unless you are looking directly ahead you can't tell if you are weaving or not - if you are looking at a screen you honestly can't tell, it's a fact of biology - you lose your visual flow and rely on the peripheral which is unreliable. Was this email a matter of life and death then? No way in the world it could have waited until you got the station (many have wifi) or home? It's only 5:30pm now and you're online, it couldn't have waited until now? They were rude but you're now just making excuses for why it was completely fine that did what you did... if you thought it was fine to do what you did then you wouldn't feel the need to make any excuses.

If the email waited all day then it could have waited until you were home. If it was that urgent you'd already have answered it.

When you're walking, your phone goes in your bag or pocket.

I’m still walking 😂 I’m not going to stare into the abyss as I walk.

I mean feel free to google it, it's a well-known issue, I haven't made it up!

Don't email while walking.
Don't call a stranger a fat fucker.

What more do you need here? A comparison to figure out which is worse?

They were twats. You were being antisocial.

I don’t move out of the way of people who are looking at their screens. I don’t care if there’s 5 feet of space next to them - they should watch where they’re going.

Of course they were rude unpleasant twats. There is no need to speak to anyone that way.
If you were on your phone though how do you know they were walking and you got in their way. After all if you'd seen them you could have avoided them but I guess you didn't because you were on your phone.
Even if you did get in their way through they still had no right to speak to you that way.

Depends - are you an android or iOS user?

Because I have peripheral vision and could see them move across the pavement?

Phone zombies are hilarious, but what they said was totally uncalled for, rude, and says more about them than anything else. I pity people like that. Give it no further thought OP they don't deserve it.

AIBU to think this really isn’t justified?

🙄🙄🙄

Well what do you think OP?

I mean really think?

I know you've shoehorned it into an 'AIBU' question but this one's ridiculous.

Although as an aside, obviously walking along the pavement is no time to stick your face in your phone.

Your phone usage had nothing remotely to do with this nasty incident. They were two cuntish blokes looking to verbally spit on a woman and you happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They're just vile misogynistic scum and you can't honestly believe they have any moral high ground about phone usage, or anything else for that matter.

Just as an aside issue though, I find it hard to believe that you had to answer an email whilst walking along the pavement. Unless you're a senior military officer in NATO or perhaps a member of Parliament. How urgent was it?

Why are you being so defensive? If you didn’t inconvenience other pedestrians, why even mention your phone? YABU for asking such glaringly self-evident AIBU.