Smartphone zombies are the biggest menace on our streets

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

The Chinese may have questions to answer when it comes to human rights – but they’re leading the way when it comes to the phenomenon of ‘smartphone zombies’ . . . and the rest of us would do well to take a leaf out of their book.

Smartphone zombies are those people who walk with their phones in front of them, texting or watching videos when they should be looking at where they are going.

They bump into you and then look at you as though you’re in the wrong – before going about their merry way in a world of their own creation.

But one woman in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou found herself facing the courts after she was caught using her mobile phone while crossing the road recently.

The woman, identified as Ms Hu, was fined ten yuan – little more than a euro – under new regulations which came into effect on New Year’s Day banning ‘activities affecting other vehicles or pedestrians’.

And the fine has received massive support across social media – hopefully from people making their views felt from the comfort of their couch, rather than pressing the ‘like’ icon while walking to work.

Our authorities only see the problem when it comes to drivers – and clearly texting and steering are incompatible at all levels – but there’s no issue with someone walking out in front of motorists who actually do obey the rules of the road.

Three penalty points is a good reason to get a hands-free or Bluetooth facility – and most cars now have them as standard anyway – but even still you see drivers in their two-year-old cars with the mobile pressed to their ear to leave one hand on the wheel.

Not that you’d condone drivers using their phones, but there might be some reason to make or take a call on a long journey; the same cannot be said for the time it takes to walk around town.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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