As I got older, I looked down more. The sidewalks near my condo are in terrible shape.
It depends. If I know the sidewalk is uneven or I’m on a trail, I look down. Otherwise my eyes go all over the place. If my wife is walking in front of me, I spend plenty of time looking at her backside.
'Zactly! On all counts. 
Does @P-man mind you looking at his wife’s backside?
Heck if I know. We’ll have to ask him. But she is darn cute; I’ll give him (and her) that.
I walk with my dog in our side walked neighborhood every morning, I alternate between looking down and forward with my forward gaze spanning about 180 degrees. I also pay attention to what my dog sees and hears so if she suddenly looks to her side or behind us, I do the same with my main concern being an approaching stray dog. Strays are not common here but I’m always on the lookout just in case.
I look down, and also around me. The ‘road’ I walk our dogs on is very rough. So I have to pay attention to my footing. My dogs like to explore, and I have to keep my eyes on them too. We also have moose and bear around here and I need to keep my eyes open for them.
I look around.
I live in an area of forests, farms, trails, gravel roads, and lots of rocks and roots. No sidewalks, not even a paved road for a couple miles. Get around that mud, what’s that bird? Ooh, tiny orange salamander! Looks like they’ll get their hay in before the storm, good for them. Bob’s visiting his grandpa today …
The dogs’ job is to stay within sight. I pay little attention to them unless we meet someone (rare, even rarer, someone we all don’t know). Then they must come in and mind.
Everyone looks around (or should). But people have a preferred default direction they look when walking. Looking ahead rather than down is much better for picking up balance cues. Not needed so much when all balance-related systems are working well, but once things start to decline every little bit helps.
One problem the PT pros have with older down-lookers is convincing them that this is not a good thing. It “seems better” but it isn’t.
I often have one or more dogs walking with me, off leash. I’m watching the dog(s) and watching for dog distractions (squirrels, turkeys, deer) so that I can maintain control.
Just a timely addition to this thread:
I just got back from walking the dog. I found three $100 bills on the street.
It was barely light out. If I hadn’t been looking right at it, it wouldn’t have simply caught my eye.
I love an endeavor with a theoretically infinite Return On Investment !
I’ve thought about ways to try to figure out who might have lost it and get it back to them, but if you think about it … it’s very difficult and you end up dealing with quite a few respondents who are … shall we say … insincere. I could say that I found cash in an envelope (it wasn’t). Correctly tell me how much cash, and what was written on the envelope, and it’s yours – a bit like how police weed out false confessions from true perpetrators.
[/pointless digression]
Moral: DON’T LOOK UP !!
Just don’t let your eyes rest there too long.
It’s similar to looking at the sun.
For everyone except me.
I asked this question five years ago:
Generally look ahead, though it depends on the ground surface: the poorer quality the road, the more often I need to look down.
ISTM I’m in the minority though. Most people I walk by seem to be looking at the ground exclusively.
This thread reminds me of my favorite book, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and the citizens of the city of Reality, who had stopped enjoying the natural beauty of their city when one person learned that he could get from Point A to Point B much quicker by staring at his feet the entire time.
Before long the entire populace was doing it, and eventually the city faded from view, but no one noticed.
I’m mostly lost in my own imagination. No idea where I’m looking, really. Unless I’m trying to make my way upstream through a crowd, in which case I make eye contact with the person that is currently in my way.
Listening seems to convey more sensory awareness anyhow, and somehow it doesn’t interfere with my brain working on some other problem.
Two comments on this:
-
There’s a sort of real-world analogue to this. Well, virtual analogue.
There are video games (e.g. Goldeneye) where you can move slightly more quickly when looking down because the game engine has less to render, so speedrunners will play entire levels spending almost all of the time looking down. -
Although I am someone that looks ahead, I’m often surprised by how much of the world I miss by not looking up. There may be a building I’ve entered dozens of times, then one day I notice that it has a 10 metre gecko sculpture on one wall of the building, and from the condition of it, it is clear it’s been there the whole time.
It feels weird that I never noticed it.
Me, I permanently look around between about 1 m (3 fr) before my feet, and the middle distance. Both in cities and when walking in nature. The hazards are different (steps + dog shit vs. rocks) but require constant attention.
When my wife and I explore a new city our priorities differ, which puts me to a lot of stress.
My priorities, in order:
- Don’t trip on stairs or curbs
- Don’t get run over
- Don’t step into dog shit
- Don’t be in the way
- Don’t crowd or loom over people
- Arrive in time at the next point that imposes an inflexible schedule (transport, reservations, opening hours)
- See the sights.
My wife’s prioritites, in order:
- See the sights.