Just Saying | Enough of Hong Kong's mobile phone zombie menaces to society

I’ve just about had enough of mobile phone zombies everywhere I go in Hong Kong. At best, they’re a public nuisance and, at worst, they’re a menace, posing a danger to themselves and others around them.

I’m talking about this annoying species of Hongkongers who walk around with their noses buried in their smartphones, oblivious to how they’re impeding the flow of humanity and irritating the heck out of everyone else. They’re everywhere – right in front of you, blocking your path, whether you’re navigating your passage along our narrow, overcrowded city streets, rushing to catch a train or bus, or even getting on and off the escalator in a shopping mall.

Just the other day, I had a run-in with a zombie in a crowded mall. She had her headphones plugged in and was not looking where she was going, obviously expecting me to get out of the way, along with anyone else who might be on a collision course with her. When I couldn’t manoeuvre to the side in time, we suffered a mini-crash, and what followed was a bit of a human traffic snarl, compounded in part by our brief staring contest.

Read more: Beware the smartphone zombies blindly wandering around Hong Kong

What really floored me, more than the actual physical impact of bumping into her, was the look of genuine outrage on her face. This was a person who, as far as she was concerned, was supremely within her rights to shuffle along in a crowded public place without paying heed to anyone around her because she was preoccupied with her phone. Everyone else should just get out of the way.

I walked away, shaking my head in disbelief, and consoling myself with the thought of her plunging face-first off the top of an escalator someday while engrossed in that damn phone.