Monday, September 15, 2014

Cellphone Lane? By Myles Bennett

One city in China decided to put a cellphone lane on one of the busy tourist-filled streets. "Yangrenjie", or Foreigner's Street, is packed with tourists and is where this new lane was tested. Cellphone users can walk in the 50-foot lane while looking at buildings and amusement parks modeled after American ways of life and architecture. 

Analysis: I have mixed feelings about this new lane. This lane encourages electronic use where I don't think electronics should be used. I think that when you are touring a new city or are in a part of town specifically designed for tourists, you shouldn't have your eyes glued to your handheld screen- take pictures, look around, have fun! The only upside I could see to this is for the people who actually are sight-seeing or have places to go that are sick of being late because of zombies on their phones blocking the sidewalk. Will these new lanes become popular and common? I sure hope not. 

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/15/world/asia/china-cellphone-sidewalk/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

3 comments:

  1. lol i cant tell if this is ingenious or just really sad and odd

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  2. Well, I'm pretty sure that this would not be the case if tourists weren't addicted to their cellphones in the first place. I completely agree with you on your point of view, people (especially the youngsters of today) need to learn how to put the phone down for a few hours and enjoy what else is not on your screen. But, since this group of people sadly make the majority of the population in most modernized countries, it's most certain that the city only put this lane in to accommodate the majority.

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  3. Haha! This is funny! I have a question though. What happens if I'm in the non-cell phone lane and all of a sudden I get a call? Does that mean I have to go through all the trouble to go over to the cellphone lane? If so, it doesn't seem like a practical good idea. Actually, the whole idea seems like a bad one.

    -Trevor Haueisen 6th

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