Chinese city creates footpath for smartphone addicts China's fifth-largest city, Chongqing, has decided to help out smartphone addicts by devoting a chunk of footpath so they never need to look up from their screens as they walk around. As anybody who's collided with a mobe-stroking pedestrian (or, for that matter, anybody who's ruined their Candy Crush score by striding into a …
The smartphone users should be given express lanes "just on the side of the highway/motorway/autoroute/autobahn".
If people really need to escape from this world so much that they keep their attention glued to a smartphone rather than their surroundings then I suggest we offer them a rope with a noose on the end.
Quite right!
And headphones. I hate headphones which basically block off one of our most important senses, just like looking at a smartphone blocks effectively off sight.
I mean, I wouldn't mind if they were actually listening to real music, but it's pretty much just repetitive beats with manufactured lyrics.
And the stupid low crotch trousers which mean you can't walk properly even if you do see or hear something coming towards you.
And what's with these modern consoles - they're just point and click. In my day you had good games like Arkanoid and Tetris. None of this violence and gore, just good gameplay. You didn't need fancy graphics or 2GB of RAM just for your textures.
And why do they need "smart" phones anyway? In my day we used to talk to people and we'd turn up on time because we'd said we would, not half an hour late because we'd "txted" so it was okay. And why 'txted' anyway? Allergic to vowels now, are you? Well you missed one at the end there - ha! Not so "smart" now are you, smartphone kids?
And comedy. None of this Jimmy Carr nonsense with his clever little jokes. We used to have proper absurdist humour. A man sitting at a desk in a field saying "now for something completely different". We didn't need to be clever because we had Surrealism.
Bah. Kids! Let 'em walk in the dog poo, I say. That'll learn 'em.
Many busy pavements (sidewalks) could benefit from having lane segregation; a "dawdle" and a "fast" lane in both directions, even 'hard shoulders' for people browsing in shop windows or stopped to cross the road.
Most people tend to 'lane' naturally and, like ants, it seems it's mainly follow the leader. It generally works okay until the stream runs into an individual coming the other way, or someone creates a rival stream in the hope of overtaking and getting there faster which invariably causes everyone to jam up as streams start criss-crossing each other.
I don't think we actually need lane markings; just tell people that's the best way to do it as it seems some people simply haven't figured it out yet.
Of course there is no way to enforce lanes without impinging on someone's right to do whatever they damn well please, even if that spoils things for the rest of us. Unless we introduce draconian punishments for not walking in correct file. That did work for 'school crocodiles' so perhaps we need some form of detention; fenced-off areas where people have to stand it out for some time for not doing it right. Whining down the pub later won't get them any sympathy if the majority buy into the idea.
Seriously.
Aimless meandering whilst posting utter drivel on Facebook should be punishable by death.
Read a story recently about someone who fell off a pier into the sea while mindlessly looking at her smartphone.
Good, I thought. Might teach you some bloody sense.
Unfortunately, Apple are already ahead of you on that one - their patent application seems to be for using the forward facing camera (which would only work if the phone is held at a suitable angle), but other than that, they've thought of it.
Sick of walking into things while gawping at your iPhone? Apple has a patent app. for that
I agree with how annoying, irritating and possibly dim some of these earphone wearing, texting and gaming people are in the street but for all you small minded whingers and moaners suggesting horrible ends, rules and treatment for them: They are exercising exactly the same rights that you are using to whinge. Or should there be separate rules for obviously sensible people like your good selves?
People who want to take other peoples rights away should be pushed into fast moving traffic! Don' t you all agree?
Since we live in a Society it is necassary to apply certain principals/rules/laws. The first of which is known as common decency.
Common decency = I respect you, you respect me.
If I walk down the street, head hung low not bothering my arse about who or what I bump into then I should fully expect that I will eventually bump into something that is bigger, stronger, smarter than I am. At such times I should also expect to feel a sharp pain from said object kicking, slapping, punching me for lacking common decency.
By walking down the street, completely oblivious to everyone else with that "couIdn't give a fuck attitude because I have to update FB" then you automatically portray that your EGO is bigger and more important than all around you. In such cicumstances
There is a HUGE difference between exercising ones right to do as one pleases when in "private" as there is to exercising ones right to do as one pleases when in "public".
Public = that which we "share" collectively.
Private = that which we choose to do outside of the public sphere.
Common decency is becoming a lost art.. humans rights appear to be slowly becoming synonymous with "everyman for himself ".
I am guessing this was written by someone who hasnt spent ANY time in mainland China; coming out of your apartment on the 15th floor, you look left and right for oncoming scooters!!!
Bikes, cars, buses, coaches, lorries, rickshaws, etc, will use any and every flattish ground to make progress, wrong side of a dual carriageway?? never mind, just ring your bell/sound your horn a lot!!!
More than once the bus I was on decided to cut through a pedestrian shopping precinct to avoid a particularly contentious set of traffic lights (not sure why they have them though, nobody pays them any attention).
Alright it's a stupid example but does point a very clear lesson that the Asian countries take technology and its use very seriously, that's just one of the reasons their economy's are growing at a rapid rate compared to ours in the west. We need to be just as daft as them in trying to find innovative ways to harness technology for everyone's benefit. It's a funny joke but with a serious message underneath!
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