Zombies Are Among Us
One of the most popular television series of all time is AMC's The Walking Dead. At its core it's a survivalist story based around a county sheriff who wakes after several weeks of being in a coma, only to find himself utterly alone in a world ravaged by the zombie apocalypse. The story follows Deputy Rick Grimes as he and his ragtag group of survivors struggle against the zombie horde, and the even greater threat posed by other humans.
It may not have happened as suddenly as it did to Deputy Grimes, but we are now waking up every day to a zombie invasion of our own. You see them every day walking our sidewalks and driving their 4,000-pound cars down our streets, imperiling our very existence.
They are the Cellphone Zombies. These mindless creatures are completely oblivious to everything and everyone around them. They exist only to serve the mighty Smartphone, driven by the insatiable desire for that hit of dopamine that only the god of wireless can provide. They wreak havoc by stumbling around, falling into manholes and colliding with light poles. They cause mayhem through distracted driving, killing themselves and the innocent who fall victim to the Cellphone Zombies' blind allegiance to their god.
I say enough is enough. City, state, and national governments can pass all the laws they want banning cell phone use in cars or while walking. But these measures are essentially unenforceable. The fines are too small to justify a police department allocating significant resources to pursue offenders. Plus there are so many people who completely ignore these laws, that any fines dispensed would be like spitting in the ocean--it just won't make any difference.
So, it's up to us, the last of the sane. We've got to somehow figure out a way to make it uncool to text and drive. To make it anathema to become absorbed in your own little wireless world while in a social situation with real people.
But, we've got to look in the mirror first. We've got to wake up and disconnect. We've got to stop staring at our phones when we walk down the street. We've got to stifle the urge to answer that text when we're driving down the road.
Because if we don't, we will all soon become the walking dead.