Thais Zombies in Bangkok

[autanic]

If any of you have been on the Bangkok Sky Train in the last 5 years then you will see an explosion of mobile phone use. 

Everyone has a mobile phone and unlike London Underground or the Paris Metro, you can get a reliable signal with out being subscribed to some wifi service.

 

This is a causing a few problems as you can imagine. 

Thais are become frequently late for work, stood on the sky train using LINE, FACEBOOK or watching a cute dog on YOUTUBE. They are reacting too late and missing there stop. If they do manage to disembark the carriage it is usually a flurry of activity before the door closes. They might have made it but were blocked by more Thai Mobile Junkie Zombies blocking the exits.

On the platforms it is not much better, people will walk seemingly quiet normally and then suddenly stop dead in their tracks when they get a facebook like, they then look around at YOU because you are impinging on their privacy or as a sex pest (which you are) as you stumbled and felt her rear ending before crashing into the back of her.

 

Restaurants and food halls are quiet, all you can here is the furious tapping of keys on the latest mobile.

 

This epidemic in Thailand is just a fraction of the global mobile pandemic threatening to destroy the social interactions of human beings.

 

Children in Bangkok no longer get shouted in for their tea. "Nong your tea is ready !"   No not anymore, now Mums across the city are sending text messages and whatsapp texts.

 

Thais really are becoming Zombies, and there is nothing we can do about it.

[brewsterbudgen]

Yawn.  I remember the same being said when people first starting using mobile phones and I remember my parents saying the same thing about television.  

[chickenslegs]

2 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

 ... I remember my parents saying the same thing about television.  

 

Doubtful. Those old TV sets were too heavy to be carried around.

[brewsterbudgen]

5 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

 

Doubtful. Those old TV sets were too heavy to be carried around.

Nice one.  My mum still told me that sitting in front of the TV would turn me into a zombie!

[tonray]

Zombie Kids in Bangkok ?

 

If you want to see Zombies, get a job teaching in a government high school !

[Rancid]

13 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Yawn.  I remember the same being said when people first starting using mobile phones and I remember my parents saying the same thing about television.  

The various apps on smart phones are proven to be highly addictive, similar in psychology  as to how poker machines work. The co-founder of Facebook recently admitted as such. The OP has raised a valid point, your illuminating yawn not withstanding.

[brewsterbudgen]

2 minutes ago, Rancid said:

The various apps on smart phones are proven to be highly addictive, similar in psychology  as to how poker machines work. The co-founder of Facebook recently admitted as such. The OP has raised a valid point, your illuminating yawn not withstanding.

He does have a point.  I just think these types of moral panics are not unusual.

[Jonathan Fairfield]

[d123]

1 hour ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Nice one.  My mum still told me that sitting in front of the TV would turn me into a zombie!

But was your mum right?

[HooHaa]

1 hour ago, autanic said:

This is a causing a few problems as you can imagine. 

Thais are become frequently late for work,

oh yeah, like this is a new thing.

 

i was living and working in thailand as the mobile phone became commonplace, and people were late even then.

[smutcakes]

I would prefer to be  zombie than a complete bore.

[faraday]

1 hour ago, chickenslegs said:

 

Doubtful. Those old TV sets were too heavy to be carried around.

Nah mate, we wuz strong as houses in them days...

[connda]

4 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Yawn.  I remember the same being said when people first starting using mobile phones and I remember my parents saying the same thing about television.  

 

4 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

 

Doubtful. Those old TV sets were too heavy to be carried around.

 

4 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Nice one.  My mum still told me that sitting in front of the TV would turn me into a zombie!

Which is why my parents would routinely kick me out of the house and tell me to go play.  
 

[catman20]

never met a Thai that was not a zombie, the lights are on but no one ever at home. 

[Bundooman]

Thais are no worse than the Chinese I saw yesterday, Sunday, here in Chiang Mai.

 

Around 11:30 am, A cavalcade of Tuk-Tuks were driving, (with a Thai police escort, of course), round the South west Suan Prung corner of the moat, heading east.

 

We passed them on a motor-bike on the outside. Glancing into the open passenger area, 2 passengers per Tuk-Tuk, (very nice earnings for the driver, of course) every Chinese person was playing on their phone. Every single one of them that we passed, About 12 - 14 of them. (There were others behind that we didn't see as we joined the road before they got to us).

 

Not one tourist was looking around enjoying the sights. I was left with the impression that they started their journey and 1 hour later ended it without seeing a single thing except the screen in front of their faces!

 

What a sad world we are turning into.........

[Minnehaha]

Actually during the mourning period they stopped announcing stops. 

 

The signs over doors are unintelligible.  And the ticker on the monitors was not working most time as well.  

 

Signage outside the doors is not clearly lined up. 

 

The result was numerous times I saw people jumping off the train to see the station b4 jumping back on.  Me self included. Zombies as well

[atyclb]

1 hour ago, catman20 said:

never met a Thai that was not a zombie, the lights are on but no one ever at home. 

 

the % of G7 intellectual function is exceedingly small. I have such friends and they would agree with you about lights on though vacant.

[smutcakes]

18 minutes ago, Minnehaha said:

Actually during the mourning period they stopped announcing stops. 

 

The signs over doors are unintelligible.  And the ticker on the monitors was not working most time as well.  

 

Signage outside the doors is not clearly lined up. 

 

The result was numerous times I saw people jumping off the train to see the station b4 jumping back on.  Me self included. Zombies as well

A straight line map in English with the names of each station clearly marked under each stop is unintelligible? I am not quite sure how they can make it any easier.

[lormakmak]

this isn't exclusive to Bangkok or Thailand... in the UK we are full of phone zombies, the city of London where the streets are bustling in commuter hour I witnessed some cretin walking through Liverpool Street station bumping into people and when I walked past him he was watching Eastenders....

 

zombie cretins the world over... 

[Bangkok Barry]

Okay. you've highlighted a problem and no-one would disagree with any of the comments that followed.

 

What is the solution?

[brewsterbudgen]

Okay. you've highlighted a problem and no-one would disagree with any of the comments that followed.
 
What is the solution?

Ban them? Or just accept life moves on.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[HooHaa]

1 hour ago, catman20 said:

never met a Thai that was not a zombie, the lights are on but no one ever at home. 

odd you haven't noticed that most foreigners eyes glaze over in your presence as well.

[i claudius]

never met a Thai that was not a zombie, the lights are on but no one ever at home. 

You are interacting with the wrong people, my wife is no zombie she is inteligent and has a good job , and before her i dated a Thai girl for over a year.she was really funny and very inteligent she is still a friend all these years later lives in the UK and owns a few restaurants

Sent from my SM-A720F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[dotpoom]

"Yawn.  I remember the same being said when people first starting using mobile phones".

   That's what he's talking about....Mobile Phones?

[theguyfromanotherforum]

8 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Yawn.  I remember the same being said when people first starting using mobile phones and I remember my parents saying the same thing about television.  

 

To be fair, I'm in Canada at the moment and I don't see nearly anything close to mobile phone addiction than what I see in Bangkok. 

 

This is strange for several reasons.

 

People in Toronto are generally more lonely and I'd go as far to say anti sociable, yet they don't seek their refuge in Facebook.

 

New phones are generally cheaper because they come with a contract, yet not many people have the newest iphone or samsung unlike in Bangkok.

 

Every major network has a cell signal in the subway, but people will rather read a book or kindle....or have earphones.

 

 

I hate smartphones, yet I'm using one to type this, but it seems to me that Thais are more zombified than the rest.....a lot more.

[tandor]

9 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

..these days nobody is on the same page.

[brewsterbudgen]

"Yawn.  I remember the same being said when people first starting using mobile phones".
   That's what he's talking about....Mobile Phones?

I think he's referring to smart phones. When mobile phones first started they were mainly used for....phoning.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Thaidream]

Smart phones?- what misnomer-  the zombies have taken over most of the World.  I refuse to become one and have refused to buy a so called smart phone. I refuse to be tracked and I certainly do not need facebook or any other social media on the go.  I thought  a  phone was to be used for making a call or receiving one- and that's what I use it for.

[XBroker]

I tend to read on this site 'hear' and 'their', but this is poorly written.

[XBroker]

1 hour ago, tandor said:

..these days nobody is on the same page.

The difference being, when they were done reading their paper, they spoke to each other.

I don't own a cell phone and never have. Trying to figure out how I can avoid one when I travel and more importantly, how I can avoid everyone else's  radiation emitting devices.