Traffic signals embedded in ground because of smart phone use

I thought this was interesting,This city embedded traffic lights in the sidewalks so smartphone users don't have to look up.
It is the city of Augsburg, Germany and in a way makes a lot of sense for the times we are in, yet I'm left feeling something's off about the use/over use of cell phones and where this idea of traffic lights in the ground may lead.
I do know that a young woman got hit in my town the other day and from what I gathered through the small town grapevine was that she was on her cell phone and yet in a cross walk. Lights in the ground telling one it is safe to walk, might not save anyone from getting hurt by a a bad driver.

What we need in my opinion is a way back to awareness without a constant gadget that connects us to the world. We need to look up and around our environment, be aware and take everything in while navigating as a pedestrian and as drivers. Here in California, pedestrians have the right of way. Just today my signal flashed the walk sign and I started to walk right as a driver started to turn at the corner I was crossing. I looked at him and pointed to my walk signal and he stopped and I crossed.
I love being connected to the world, but I know I'm in the world without a gadget and the world is all around me, not just on a screen.
Well, thanks for reading folks and please share your thoughts on the subject matter.

What's next, conveyor belt sidewalks? Forget about looking around... we won't even have to move our bodies very much!

Get the phone app 'Can I cross the street yet?'

Seriously though, technology is going to keep embedding itself into our routine and psyche to the point that apps and OS will integrate itself with the most basic of human functions, including looking up now and then.

a reply to: peppycat

You know the saying:

Smartphones, dumb peoples...

a reply to: peppycat

Just the other day I was discussing something similar with regards to how our modern world has really changed in the past decade. Many feel that we are more interconnected than ever before, which to a certain degree we are with the interwebs and the fact that we can now almost instantly communicate with each other over our hand held device but at what cost?

We were discussing many examples, One for instance, DVDs and how the video store is pretty much extinct. Back in the day on a Friday night or Halloween etc, we would run down to the video store, pick out a selection of movies for the evening or the weekend, then the next stop for the evening was to pick up some wine/beer etc then finally hit a pizza shop or some other take out.

Often times we'd run into people we'd know at each local and either have a small chat face to face catching up on each others lives or end up inviting them over for an evening of suds & pizza and a movie. Nowadays, almost everyone we know have high speed interwebs, HD TVs and texting capabilities. Instead of the previously mentioned scenario. We presently order a pizza online/phone to be delivered, pick out a movie or two for the evening online or via cable services and text a friend about what we are doing, they'll more than likely text back that they are doing the same thing where they live.

Electronic physical isolation.

a reply to: peppycat

The peoples using smartphone have a tendency to be recipient for a Darwin price.

Some time ago not far from here, there was a poor girl too absorbed by her smartphone at a subway station waiting for the cars to arrive. When the door opened, she walked directly between two cars instead of the door.
She had fallen onto the rails and have been crushed to death.

Sad...

a reply to: SLAYER69 Electronic physical isolation is right. I have become quite addicted to being on ATS or playing my 3ds game, but have started to make a point to stare into a gadget only when I am by myself and not while spending time with friends/loved ones. The disconnect of doing such while around people right in front of me... feels really off. There are times when it is okay, like after spending a lot of time together in the same home... but the need for quality time and interaction with people in real life feels to me like a very human necessity for my sense of balance and well being.

a reply to: PeterMcFly Very sad and disturbing story.
When I was younger, my school taught the ways of the road and safety on bicycles.
Today, we need to have cell phone awareness safety classes.... and I am not joking. Just like we should not text and drive, we should not text and cross the road or text in an area you must be aware of any dangers, like in your story.

a reply to: peppycat

If somebody gets hurt or killed because he can´t stop facebooking or twittering on his superduper-good for eyes and neck-screen, then this is only natural selection, it´s not too bad.
Own fault, own stupidity, no compassions!

I like to jostle such freaks, when they see nothing than their mini screen and run towards me. Or to yell at them, short before i would jostle them. It´s a lot of fun and laughing for me when they are shocked nearly to death by their surroundings, by the real life... xD

a reply to: DerBeobachter Whoa... what's that?! Its the real world! Not always such a bad place.😊

so many people think enslavement will come via some tyrannical government or terrorism or corporations taking over the world, but nope, your owner is right there in your pocket.

how pathetic.

Couldnt ww have just let natural selection take its course?

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse Maybe the hi tech phones are all part of the master plan... to keep our heads down and us unaware as we lose social graces and become zombies?😓

a reply to: crazyewok
yeah but i don't want to be late for work because some idiot just HAD to post that hashtag on his twitter.
there has to be a way for natural selection to work without it inconveniencing us

a reply to: peppycat

if it was a master plan i would almost admire it we do it to ourselves, or at least the people that engage in this kind of behaviour, we should use social media to inform ourselves and connect, not to live through it.
I fully expect to see people walking down the screen looking at it through the live view of their phone's camera instead of just, you know, using their own eyes.
but you never know when something might happen and you can take that picture asap and make it go viral and become internet famous because obviously that is all that matters any more!!!

if zombies existed and ate brains they would just die of malnutrition nowadays

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse Lol! I'll have to invent the cell phone sun glasses, just press a small button the side of them and you can snap or record everything your seeing on the screen/lens.
I just remembered a dream about a car that had a screen instead of a window... instead of real life everything should be seen through a screen! I see the future now and I'm becoming a vegetarian... malnourished, dyeing, zombie brains...ick!

a reply to: peppycat

I'm torn on this.
On the one hand it's depressing that this is needed, and I definitely think that younger people especially need to stop being so attached to their devices, it's just not healthy in my opinion. But, this is a technological step forward and just as with every other there are going to be people rejecting it.

The same thing happened at every other technological move - when people started getting electricity in their homes for the first time people campaigned against it, wrote articles saying how it would make people lazy, how it would damage your health, how it would lead to all kinds of things.

When people got phones in their homes, TV's, radios... the same thing. There were people out there claiming all kinds of nonsense about how dangerous it all was and how wasteful such things were.

What difference does it make, really, whether the lights are in the ground or on poles? If anything, it's more aesthetically pleasing while offering a better chance at preventing death and injury. I think people who complain about things like this are just generally whiners who just desperately want something to rant about.

I'll just finish with this right here, seems relevant:

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse
We gladly pay life for the latest incarnation of enslavement device.....
The cage is about us....
The cage is about us...

(Just part of a song I wrote many many years ago)

a reply to: Rocker2013 Thank you for the reply and especially the video! That was awesome!

And we all say this stuff whilst sitting here looking at a screen and typing our thoughts. .
How ironic. .

a reply to: peppycat

Yeah, people walk into you in the grocery store because they are looking at their smart phones instead of where they are walking.
I remember the lady that walked/fell into a fountain at a shopping mall... again, looking at phone while walking.
Stores have apps that lead you to savings in the store. I know that the Target app sends an alert to your phone when you walk through the door... reminding you of special deals. They urge you to pay attention to the electronic device.
I am surprised that we don't have a drive to have people walk with their phone camera on in front of their faces to see where they are going.... to 'solve' the problem.