Fighting the smartphone ‘invasion’: the French village that voted to ban scrolling in public
Seine-Port is introducing restrictions on phone use in streets, shops and parks – but young people say there’s little else to do Angelique Chrisafis Angelique Chrisafis in Seine-Port @achrisafis Sat 10 Feb 2024 05.00 GMT
A picture of a smartphone with a red line through it serves as a warning in the window of a hairdresser’s shop in a French village that has voted to ban people scrolling on their phones in public. “Everyone is struggling with too much screen time,” said Ludivine, a cardiology nurse, as she had her hair cut into a bob, leaving her phone out of sight in her bag. “I voted in favour, this could be a solution.”
Seine-Port, in the Seine-et-Marne area south of Paris, with a population of fewer than 2,000 people, last weekend voted yes in a referendum to restrict smartphone use in public, banning adults and children from scrolling on their devices while walking down the street, while sitting with others on a park bench, while in shops, cafes or eating in restaurants and while parents wait for their children in front of the school gates. Those who might check their phone’s map when lost are instead being encouraged to ask for directions.
I get it and I support it too, especially because it’s not enforcable by police, but still changes the attitude towards screens.
Yeah I hope people ask themselves more frequently: “Do I really need to take out my phone now? Is it really that important?”, and rather look at the birds, talk to people, just enjoy life.
As always - decent idea, poor execution.
Enforcement is rarely as effective as education - and it is an issue that probably should be addressed at school or at a young age at home, that notification dopamine hits are easily abused by apps and advertisers, the dangers of walking on pavements while your head’s down, and the pervasiveness of social media or always-connected information and it’s impact on mental health.
After all, behaviours are better changed when you learn why it’s a bad idea, rather than someone telling you it’s a bad idea.
Sounds to me like ye olde days when old people would try to ban cycling or book reading in public, because it was predominantly younger people doing it. Or trying to enforce public dress codes.
Just a bunch of whiny old farts who can’t accept the changes of the world and lash out at the youth.
That was never said nor implied. What you’re doing is putting the words you want to hear in someone’s mouth.
Don’t. It’s intellectually irresponsible.
They’re saying it’s old people making a bigger deal out of scrolling in general.
Younger people grew up with it, it isn’t something new that they don’t understand.
It’s the old farts like me who blame the phones for the state of things, kinda like how it was videogames, rock and rap music before.
Lots of yellin at clouds
No, that’s not what I’m saying, and I don’t know how you could have come to that conclusion.
Nor was I saying that back when people were calling to ban them, that only young people read books or cycled.
But it’s all stuff that older people perceived young people to be obsessed with, and thus wanted to clamp down on it as a punishment/because they viewed it as being wrong.
I agree with this. Although I admit it is imposing one group’s opinion on the whole of society (in the village at least)
I think there’s something very human about a ton of people being bored, but mentally present, together. I was just thinking about how current technological advancements are creating a very easy path for us to spend less time experiencing our shared reality and increasingly recede into our own, personalized ones (think VR/AR + AI generated things). And not just media bubbles but actual experiences. Look at how detached Casey seems, and now imagine that the entire city is wearing these. VR/AR might be a fringe topic right now but if it becomes the path of least resistance for something, like living via Zoom became during COVID, it will eventually become mainstream.
It’s trivial now but I think it will come to bite us in a few decades’ time
Before phones I used to carry a book or a notebook with a couple of problems I was working on. Would you also ban those to force me into boredom?
Purely my opinion, but: no, because your notebook is finite. You will eventually run out of problems and also be bored.
I see where you’re going! There are a class of people like me that always overpack to prevent that from happening. If I got lost in the wilderness I would certainly eventually run out. The amount of reading material I put in my backpack is way more than I would hit in a given time out with my backpack.
I agree with your point that digital media influences and transformed the way we interact whith each others, and I believe there are studies indicating that young people feel more isolated, which could be a causality of rising smartphone usage.
And I agree, that this needs to be addressed, especially in the face of addiction. The way the french policy handles this though is to create an insentive for people to stay inside, because there they can still use their devices without being questioned or judged, further singleing those out, who already struggle in public using their phone as a lifeline.
The questions that need to be asked here is why people are so eager to use digital devices? Because they are developed in a way to make the user addicted.
If you ban scrolling in public, only criminals will scroll in public. Remember, the only way to stop a bad guy scrolling in public is a good guy scrolling in public.
Are they also going to ban reading newspapers or books in public or are they hypocritical boomers?
I believe I know what you are getting at, but still, that’s not exactly an equal comparison:
https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2020.1a13
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563214001149
So you’re suggesting people are only allowed to use the optimal method for everything?
Personally I’m not attempting to deeply study Lemmy in the three minutes I’m sitting in a reception area but YMMV.
No, I was not suggesting that, but you already knew that - if not, feel free to rejoin this conversation once you have left that reception area and increased your attention span beyond the 3 minute of waiting you’re trying to kill.
Also, just to be clear: the French proposal is bullshit, although at its core, there probably is some merit. I do not agree with the execution. In the end, it’s a minorty of people helplessly clawing at something they don’t understand. That doesn’t mean your argument of “tHeY ShOuLd aLsO BaN BoOkS” is any more meaningful.
Smartphone addiction exists, and we are currently exploring the correlation of screen time, social media consumption etc. and depression, anxiety and ADHD in both teenagers and adults.
All I wanted to point out was that reading books and spending time in front of a screen are not equal.
Fuck this, sounds like parenting and policing all slammed into the same policy. Just let people fucking be.
