When I lived in Taiwan, I learned that some folks called the current generation of young people the “xia tou zu” or “bent-over heads generation.”  The term derives from the 45˚ incline of their heads vis-à-vis their iPhones. 

In Germany, to say somebody lacks Kinderstube is an insult.  It means that person is wanting in upbringing.  He doesn’t know how to act in public.  Kinderstube was taken for granted because people rightly assumed that living with others in society is not just nice, but a legitimate social expectation.  “It’s not just all about you.”

My Kinderstube peeve is with the xia tou zu person on an iPhone or mobile — specifically, the one pretending to be “walking” with it.

Recently trying to transfer from one rail platform to another, I got caught behind two people.  The first young woman simply could not speed up because her eyes were glued to her screen rather than the open platform in front of her, though she was generally advancing in some forward direction.  Managing to skirt her, I wound up behind the next young person with a metallic growth attached to his hand.  The difference was that at least the first person feigned the appearance of being ambulatory.  The second suddenly was struck by something he saw and, therefore, stopped in his tracks.  Not having expected him to do that, so did I, resulting in a collision.

In simpler times, people assumed that one keeps moving, maintaining pace when walking in a crowd.  You paid attention to those around you so that everyone got where he had to be.

But that norm seems to be replaced by paying attention to whatever interests you at this moment, to having your mind somewhere else and not necessarily connected to what your body is doing.  If that’s a problem for others, it’s their problem.

No, it isn’t.

Once upon a time, “pay attention to what you’re doing” was about as elementary a principle as “there are boys and there are girls” and “2 + 2 = 4.”  It’s amazing that we now have to speak about, even insist on, them.  Apparently, we do.

The idea that many people need a telephone-ectomy may be generational.  I’ve seen that already with my own kids: while I am busy noting the glorious scenery just outside the car window, their eyes are fixed on a different window.  What is really absurd is when you tell somebody “look at that!” and, instead of looking, he photographs it.  Are you going to look at it later?  And if image not only substitutes for, but supplants the “real thing,” are we surprised that realistic thinking is fading and metaphysics is a lost science?

The screen-attached will claim they can’t be out of contact for a second.  The world will pivot off its axis if they are not aware of the latest email, text, or tweet.  Your walking cannot take precedence over my need to know now.  And that means the overall pace is down, because walking is not the primary thing these “walkers” are doing.

It was De Gaulle who made the observation that cemeteries are full of indispensable people.  Sorry, friend, but you’re just not that “mission critical.”  It may be hard to believe, but the world most likely will continue rotating should you manage to get off your phone for the time it takes you to connect from train A to train B.

Yes, there’s an art to walking — ars ambulandi.  Shall we try it?

Image via Flickr, public domain.