Generation Z.. Ombie?

[ToraToraTora]

https://news.sky.com/story/teens-with-problematic-smartphone-relationship-more-likely-to-suffer-anxiety-depression-and-insomnia-study-finds-13188431

Are we cultivating a nation of zombies? Go anywhere these days and there are groups of people just staring blankly at their phones.

[Old_Geezer]

No. Their parents are.

[dave50]

Please dont give em another excuse to claim to suffer from anxiety .

[New Judge]

"Go anywhere these days and there are groups of people just staring blankly at their phones."

It's not only that, Tora. They walk about and bump into things. 

I saw a woman walk smack bang into the side of a bus last year in London's Strand. She was walking along the pavement towards the oncoming bus (which was travelling at about 12-15mph, gawping at some drivel on her phone, when she suddenly just stepped off the pavement and collided with the bus. It was lucky the front of the bus had already passed her - half a second earlier and she would have fallen under its front wheels.

Instead she hit the bus in the side between the front and middle doors, immediately where I was sitting. She bounced back onto the pavemnent and, tripping over the kerb, fell flat on her back.

The driver stopped and got out to check on her. When she got to  her feet she began effing and blinding at him, suggesting it was his fault. That is where I came in. I got off the bus (I was nearly at my stop anyway and had decided to walk whilst the fracas was sorted out). I told her in no uncertain terms it was entirely her fault and that she was lucky to be able to walk away. I gave the driver my details and told him to contact me if there were any repercussions as I'd seen the entire incident. She responded by calling me an old fart saying "So who are you, his ***king brother?" (I'm white and he was black, approximately half my age).  

This is what mobile phones have done to people. The pavement is a nighmare. All you see is morons walking along, looking at Twitface or whatever it is. I've now taken to stopping walking when I see one approach. I've noticed they seem to rely on others weaving round them. So stopping makes them look up from the important business they are conducting. If they don't I simply stretch out a hand in front of me and shout at them to watch out.

[ToraToraTora]

yep very sad, I do that too I just stop and wait for them to hit me, great fun.

[tomus42]

This is the same thing old timers used to say about kids watching too much television.

[brainiac]

Am I the only ABer who has no mobile phone, smart or otherwise?

[brainiac]

//This is the same thing old timers used to say about kids watching too much television.//

No, it's not.  We're taliking about people walking about outside, bumping into people and things.  So nothing at all like doing something in the privacy of their homes.

[tomus42]

Probably brainiac. Do you rely on a landline? I know people that do.

[Cloverjo]

When I was young I managed to somehow bump into lots of lampposts. That was way before the days of mobile phones. 

[brainiac]

Yes, only have a landline

[tomus42]

//No, it's not. We're taliking about people walking about outside, bumping into people and things. So nothing at all like doing something in the privacy of their homes.//

Nope. Failure to comprehend how our kids will use the technology we invented but they were born with. Same thing.

[vulcan42]

Improper use is the problem, like texting on a mobility scooter driving on a crowded pavement. Like waiting at traffic lights, green for the pedestrian and when they go green for the driver, step off the kerb still texting. I firmly believe in a few generations time people will be born with their head at a 45 degree angle and an arm extended at the elbow and the hand shaped to recieve a mobile phone.

[ToraToraTora]

//This is the same thing old timers used to say about kids watching too much television.//

rubbish, we didn't take a portable to the pub and sit round a table all watching our own TV did we? We didn't walk along the high st watching TV stepping in front of buses.

[ToraToraTora]

vulcan: "Improper use is the problem" - yes of course but I think a much more sinister and dangerous problem is the zombification of youth. They spend upwards of 12 hours a day looking at tikfacetube or whatever. They have a fit if they haven't looked at their phone for 5 seconds. Gawd knows how schools cope.

[vulcan42]

TTT, totally agree,  it seems to have started with common sense disappearing and is now, as you put it zombification. The girl at the traffic lights just stood there while all the traffic was stopped, when the lights changed and cars started to move she then stepped off the Kerb. Instead of stepping back she ran across the road and was nearly hit again by a car coming the other way.

[Old_Geezer]

That's just evolution trying to improve things.