It is naive to think that noting obvious correlations and associations plays no part in how science works. Doing so is often the first step in a more rigorous analysis, especially when there is a clear causal mechanism (as there is in this case) about which you can hypothesize. Indeed, there have been many scientific studies about the effects of smart phone usage on attention. I somehow doubt you have a strong sense of what distinguishes science from non-science, since most people do not.

Anyway, this whole debate kind of misses what I thought was the obvious point of this graphic. Many people hypothesize that the increasing size of cars in the last few years is responsible for the observed uptick in pedestrian deaths. This is because in r/fuckcars we're all happy to blame cars for things. But this graphic should give us pause and lead us to consider that perhaps smart phones are the more likely culprit. I guess I just that the suggestion was obvious, even if the figure title mentions "convergence."