VOX POPULI: Look up from your smartphone and see the world around you

If aliens were to observe the Earth today, they would undoubtedly find humans to be strange creatures.

Food is so abundant that large amounts are thrown away daily, but many people suffer from hunger.

People fight and hurt each other. Moreover, despite having the ability to look far ahead, people walk with their heads down, bumping into one another.

“What is more important than avoiding the person right in front of you?” This is a slogan I saw at a local station a short while ago.

It seems accidents caused by “aruki sumaho” (walking while using smartphones) continue unabated. According to the Tokyo Fire Department, over the past five years, 158 people have been rushed to hospitals due to such accidents.

Those in their 50s constitute the largest age group among the patients, the department said.

In Chinese, such people are called “di tou zu” (low-head tribe), a term that mocks those engrossed in their smartphones, heads constantly bowed.

From a country that once demanded the “san gui jiu kou” (three kneelings and nine head knockings) ritual when meeting the emperor, the “low-head tribe” phrase seems to indicate, with a sharp irony, that the modern emperor is the smartphone.

As a hopelessly clumsy person, I can’t manage using a smartphone and walking at the same time, even if I wanted to. I am in awe of people who can smoothly navigate their way through crowded streets while typing away.

Do they have an extra set of eyes somewhere? It almost makes one joke about humanity undergoing a new evolution.

Situations that require you to look at your phone screen urgently are pretty rare. Why do we continue to stare at our smartphones? Perhaps it ties back to the issue of “boredom,” a problem that has plagued philosophers throughout the ages.

Li Bai (701-762), one of the most famous poets of the Tang Dynasty, composed a famous poem that contains the following lines: “Lifting my head/ I gaze at the moon above a mountain/ Lowering my head/ I reminisce about home.”

Let us put away our smartphones for a while and take a look around our town. The spring breeze is gentle and the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom. Let’s look up and walk forward.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 31

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.