Increasing 'street zombies'

By Park Moo-jong

"What are you talking about?" Some or many readers may be wondering if there really are zombies on Seoul streets, upon seeing the title of this column.

Of course there are not. A zombie is a fictional dead person in sci-fi and horror novels or movies who has returned to life as a walking corpse, as you know well.

In reality, this zombie refers to a person who appears lifeless or is apathetic or completely unresponsive to his or her surroundings or a computer someone controls without the owner's knowledge for illegal purposes.

Unfortunately, we can see so many zombie-like people, especially young ones, on streets and elsewhere, called "smombies" here.

Smombie is a portmanteau of sm from smartphone and ombie from zombie coined in Germany a few years ago, and is now popular around the world, as a wittier description than "smartphone addict."

Dictionaries define a smombie as a pedestrian who walks slowly and without caring about other people as they are so focused on their smartphone they are a serious safety hazard on roads.

About a year ago, I wrote about the danger of walking zombies under the title: "Smombies vs. Walking Dead," expressing a deep worry about various possible accidents they may cause.

To my regret, however, no effective measures have been taken, so far, against the smombies who trip over curbs, walk out in front of moving cars and bump into other pedestrians. On rainy Tuesday, I was a victim of a stout high-school girl smombie in a subway station who bumped into my shoulder.

It is a common scene these days that many young people waiting for the green light at crosswalk do not cross the street on time even at the very green light because they cannot react to the new sign, being absorbed in the smartphone with their head down.

To add insult to injury, the number of such smartphone users is constantly increasing, even with many of them using earphones. They can neither see, nor hear, with their heads bowed.

Various surveys and data of both public and private transportation-related organizations show the seriousness of the situation concerning smombies' "dead walking.

Over the past three years since 2014, a total of 6,340 traffic accidents took place due to distraction while walking, injuring and killing 6,470; 16.7 percent or 1,105 of the casualties died.

The Korea Transportation Safety Authority recently conducted a research about the danger of using a smartphone while walking, and found traffic accidents caused by smombies have nearly doubled over the past four years.

The number of people killed in accidents while walking in Korea is 4.3 per population of 100,000, almost triple the OECD average of 1.4. Under this situation, it is no wonder that traffic accidents caused by smombies have become a tough social problem.

Misfortunes never come singly. Another problem is a sharp rise in the number of "smombie kids." They are so busy texting messages and playing games while walking on sidewalks and even crossing the street at crosswalks.

Many countries are racking their brains to find how to cope with the ever-spreading trend. The city of Honolulu was the pioneer in the odyssey by banning pedestrians from watching mobile phone or texting while crossing the street.

In the capital city of Hawaii, a smombie is fined $15 to $35 for the first violation and after that $75 to $99 depending on the number of violation. Many countries including Sweden, Britain and China are exerting efforts to solve the problem. For instance, Chongqing of China and Antwerp of Belgium have introduced special lanes for smartphone users to help direct and manage them.

For the safety of not only smombies themselves, but other pedestrians and drivers, our government should work out diverse countermeasures to discourage the use of smartphones while walking.

One of the best ways is, needless to say, prohibit the bad addicted practice, like the legal ban on using a cellphone while driving.

Just a year ago, some "forward-looking" lawmakers combined to initiate a bill to fine smombies, but it is still pending due to a lack of "cooperation" from their colleagues. Of course, many may argue such a bill infringes on personal freedom and restricts private property rights.

But they have to admit that they can also hurt others by bumping into them or causing traffic mishaps by paying more attention to their phones than the road in front of them.

Basically, the smombies do not or won't care about others at all, nakedly showing their lack of etiquette in a society where self-centered behavior and ideas have become a new trend.

Not only on the streets, but also at other locations such as subway trains, it is easy to find smombies.

Steve Jobs did give the mankind one of the most convenient tools as one of the most important daily necessities. The world without a smartphone is beyond imagination. Yet, we have to roll our sleeves up to guide the growing generation to use the unrivaled digital device in a right and proper manner, at least about the etiquette in using the mobile phone.

Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.