Walking in the smartphone age

Abstract

On the basis of the existing literature on aesthetic practices of walking and strolling, this article seeks to create a critical apparatus in order to determine how smartphones condition individuals in urban and natural settings. Hyperconnectivity intensifies both the profusion of the stimuli characteristic of the urban experience and the sensory deprivation of rapid rhythms due to temporal self-discipline. Conversely, walking emphasizes the experience of one’s immediate surroundings, a slow pace, sensoriality and the creative subversion of loneliness and being lost.