Aug 01, 2022

A few weeks ago I published a 5 Minute Break article on the subject of phone zombies – those people who insist on walking along crowded streets with their noses so deeply buried in their phones that they are apparently oblivious to where they are going. My point was that as they are not looking, then it becomes necessary for the more responsible citizens who are walking towards them to get out of their way, or shout to alert them (see the full article here).

This week I would like to expand on this, and use these Phone Zombies to illustrate a wider point – that as a society, I believe we are becoming increasingly self-centred. Indeed, it seems to me that we’re going well beyond mere self-centredness and have arrived at an altogether more insidious place. A place called ‘self-entitlement.’ A place where anyone who wants to act in a selfish way can do so, despite the negative impact their behaviour might have on others. Indeed, any resulting unpleasantness is the other person’s fault for trying to thwart their self-expression.

Take these phone zombies as an example…  [More]