I couldn't help the guy, I wasn't there. It seems to me that people lost in their phones simply aren't present, generally, so do nothing for the same reason.
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Has nothing to do with phones or being present. It has to do with the fact that someone has a knife. Unless you are armed with a gun, you also won't do anything against a guy with a knife.
Go read about the knife attack on van gogh or any other knife attack. When someone is crazy and wielding a knife, you back away. I forget which world class MMA fighter said it, but he said that if anyone approaches him with a knife, he'd run. That's a world class MMA fighter.
There was an interesting podcast on the guy who stabbed a kid on a bus in canada. As the guy was stabbing the kid, everyone on the bus fled. And then 3 guys got together and decided to board the bus and try to save the kid. When the three guys got back on the bus, the guy showed his knife to the 3 men and they all just left and waited for the police like everyone else.
Also, what's with a vocal minority on HN blaming anything and everything on smartphones and social media? I swear in the past few months, it feels like every HN story with a smartphone or social media angle is being targeted to push an agenda.
Edit: Found the podcast ( sword and scale ep 31 ). Really fascinating podcast and worth a listen if you have the time.
In some courtroom, back in the days before metal detectors, somebody tried to shoot Jimmy Hoffa, and Hoffa charged him and got hold of the gun. Afterwards, he gave his attorney, Edward Bennett Williams, a piece of advice that "might help him live longer": run toward a gun, but from a knife.
I completely agree with you about the feasibility of intervening in a knife attack, but I get the impression that no-one was helping the victim after the attacker had fled.
You are right that it is not about phones, it is about people.
Pretty much, but there is something to be said for responding with a golf club, baseball bat, barbeque fork, ice ax, tire iron, trench shovel, chainsaw, lawn edger, hammer, table leg, gaff, log...
Nah. The bystander effect is well documented and has been around a lot longer than smart phones.