BARTLARDINOIS

A Smombie, never heard of? Well, there’s a great chance you are a Smombie yourself. The word has recently been added to the German language and probably the rest of the world will follow soon. In Sydney they have now a new invention for these Smombies, which hopefully will save dozens of lives.

 

So let me first explain you what the word Smombie means. It’s a mash up of the words ‘smartphone’ and ‘zombie’. The word is used to describe people who are walking on the street or anywhere else while watching and using their mobile device. I have to admit, I am a Smombie myself sometimes. And yes, I know it’s wrong and very unsafe, maybe just as risky as calling while driving. But what in these busy days is a better time to check your emails, send out some Facebook-likes en text your mom then when you’re moving form A to B? Indeed. But when you are busy with all these kind of things, there’s no more time to watch the traffic lights. And I may tell it now kind of funny, but this is actually the cause of many deaths every year. And as you can guess, the numbers are increasing.

So, the New South Wales government is starting with a six-month trial in Sydney in December of this year. They are placing traffic light in the pavements at the sides of the streets, so people see them in the corner of their eye when they look at their phone. Very smart invention if you ask me. Australia is not really the first one to experiment with this kind of projects. In Ausberg (Germany) they put LED’s in the ground at a train station, to warn people for coming trams. Pretty smart and simple inventions that can save many lives.

 

A couple of years ago China started with special ‘one-way mobile phone lanes’ on pavements for people watching there phone, so they won’t bump into each other. So what do we actually see here? Are we all so addicted to our phone that we can’t take a moment of for our own risk? Have we come to the moment that our phone is more important then our own lives? Slowly the world around us adapts to our phone use. Is that a good or a bad thing? I think it’s efficient.

Photo: A smombie, watching here phone and the traffic light