In a rather disturbing story from SBS, there are reports that the city of Chongqing in China has introduced reserved lanes for mobile phone addicts. What??? The only pleasing thing about this news is that it wasn’t a dedicated lane in traffic!
Encouraging the widespread practice of having one’s nose stuck to the device, the addicted can now walk in their own private pedestrian lane, assured they should only bump into other like-minded addicts. With lane markings similar to bike lanes, these footpaths are painted with pictures of mobile phones and arrows reminding the afflicted in which direction they are travelling.
Is it any wonder that China reportedly has more than 300 internet addiction centres, with surveys indicating that an estimated 24 million young people (about the same number as the entire population of Australia) are addicted to the internet?