The smombies are the pedestrians who every day walk down the street with their eyes fixed on the display of their devices, unaware of the risks they are running
They walk down the street with their heads bowed, slowly and without paying attention to anything other than their precious mobile device. They are a danger to themselves and to other people as well. We are talking about the ‘smombi’, the zombies of the new millennium, slaves of the smartphone.
There are many pedestrians who every day and in any part of the world advance on the street with their eyes fixed on the display of their devices, heedless of the risks they are facing. And indifferent to the accidents they could cause, in some cases even fatal. They appear in front of cars like defenseless animals, forcing drivers to brake suddenly or make dangerous detours. Sometimes they cross the crosswalk with a red light, risking ending up under the wheels of a bus. Or they hit their head violently with a light pole or end up with their foot in a pothole.
Smombi: a category to be protected
It is said that smartphone zombies have a field of vision of only 5%, compared to a pedestrian walking with his head up. Many cities, to cope with this unpleasant phenomenon, have taken the field, creating differentiated paths for this category of people ‘unprotected’. In the Chinese city of Chongqing, where according to some estimates there are about 2.5 million people affected by smartphone addiction, the local government has built a sidewalk with two separate lanes: one for ‘normal’ pedestrians and the other for smombi.
In other cities, luminous signals have been introduced on the road surface near crosswalks or sound warnings. In Holland, for example, in the town of Bodegraven, a system of LED lights is being tested, which turns red and green, synchronizing with the traffic lights.
The smombies are a further demonstration of the side effects generated by an excessive and uncontrolled use of smartphones. An addiction that, in addition to having consequences on the psyche (sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety) also risks endangering physical health, leading people, as in the case of smartphone zombies, straight into an abyss.