French village bans mobile phones

Phone scrolling outlawed near Paris - 1st April 2024

A recent ban has put a quaint French town – Seine-Port – on the map. The town, located to the south of Paris, has been making waves after residents voted to outlaw scrolling on smartphones in public spaces. The novel initiative throws light on increasing apprehension regarding the omnipresence of smartphones and their potential influence on social interaction.

The measure puts an end to people of all ages publicly scrolling on their devices, for example while strolling in the park, in restaurants or at the school gates. Since digitally navigating the local streets on one's mobile is now also taboo, anybody who's lost their way will be obliged to confer with an actual human being!

Although the wording in the measure is fairly rigid, law enforcement says they won't have the power to take action. Council representatives are pressing cafes and restaurants to exhibit signs declaring they're smartphone-free zones and to exert their right to refuse service to those clients busy scrolling. The local primary school's already seen posters being plastered on its walls, recommending people stash away their gadgets.

The town's mayor, Vincent Paul-Petit, insists that this prohibition has nothing to do with demonising smartphones, but is instead a plea for moderation and mindfulness with regard to their employment. At the heart of the resolution is the desire to preserve public spaces for social interaction, and to combat the habit-forming aspects of smartphones that can distract individuals from living in the present.

For anxious parents such as Ludivine, the driving force behind the veto was their offspring's wellbeing since "A lot of children and adults are intoxicated by screens," she commented, "even babies in pushchairs scroll phones. This is about replacing that with more human contact."

Not every inhabitant of Seine-Port is on board. Characterising himself as a moderate user, Gabriel, 20, is on the opposite side of the fence and stated simply, "You can't ban knowledge at your fingertips."

Despite a plethora of research-based evidence connecting prolonged scrolling to consequences such as poor posture, muscle fatigue and blurred vision, the picture's incomplete in terms of the impact on people's social connections.