A French village that voted to ban scrolling in public

I was tickled by this statement:<p>&quot;Those who might check their phone’s map when lost are instead being encouraged to ask for directions.&quot;<p>Having Interrailed across northern Europe and travelled within a variety of cities without an internet-connected phone, I am now confident in declaring that the average local is <i>terrible</i> at giving directions! Attempt to ask how to get to the nearest metro station or bus stop, for instance, and each of the friendly residents you ask will direct you in an entirely different direction. Of course, you&#x27;ll also get your fair share of unsolicited travel advice: in Brussels, I believe I have now heard more instructions for effective fare-dodging than I have actual directions!<p>As a result of the typical denizen&#x27;s questionable geography knowledge, I&#x27;ve now made sure I have a good offline map before embarking on any journey. If I know approximately which railway or bus lines I&#x27;ll need to use, I&#x27;ll download timetables for them as well. Of course, I could print out a dozen maps in advance - there&#x27;s nothing inherently electronic about a map - but spurning maps entirely and asking for directions just won&#x27;t cut the mustard!

This is an interesting idea: Voting on the norms of society even if not strictly enforceable. I would love a referendum on tipping in my American state.<p>The proposed solution that at least 54% of this village have recognized is that the internet has really eroded societal bonds. The optimization of everything, coupled with the easy on-demand connection provided by phones is a big problem for society. It&#x27;s like eating cake all the time, its easy and feels good in the moment but it will likely have negative societal impacts.<p>I&#x27;ll speak for America, but I am sure it isn&#x27;t unique here. The optimization of everything to short term profit &amp; loss coupled with phones has made society pretty unpleasant.<p>- Grocery stores have removed handles from bags and most tellers.<p>- Extremely uniform big box stores are primarily all that are left<p>- Shopping is fully online<p>- Workers have been reduced as much as possible to automata in low status jobs.<p>- Due to the quality and quantity of data, of all goods are priced to the absolute max society can bear and wages are suppressed to the extent possible as well.<p>- Connection with society is primarily done through a screen and id ephemeral<p>I could go on. The point is that in concert, this has seriously changed our society even if any single change alone would be positive.<p>Phones are simply a symptom of a society that is lonely and disconnected and a biological psychology that makes adaptation to this change hard&#x2F;impossible. It&#x27;s not neccesarily negative, but we will see how this shapes society when gen-z and gen alpha are in their 40s.

I&#x27;ll believe it when I see a French court actually enforce this ordinance. It seems too vague and rights-limiting to be more than a publicity stunt.<p>I also chuckle at a French government trying to encourage people to spend more time in public. Throughout history French governments have famously tried to keep people from taking to the streets. Most every revolt began with a conversation in a pub or coffee shop.

Is this how we use the term &quot;scrolling&quot; now? I mean, I get &quot;doom scrolling&quot;, but now just bare &quot;scrolling&quot; connotes addictive attachment to social media on a mobile device?<p>&lt;sigh&gt;<p>Okay, fine.

Banning doesn&#x27;t make sense. I&#x27;d be ok with a campaign to try and make it socially unacceptable, like smoking.

The word &quot;ban&quot; is doing a lot of work here. As I read (and commented) earlier it&#x27;s merely an informal decision by the village mayor that smombies are to be discouraged.<p>The headmaster of a school who says no to phones probably has more clout.<p>What amused me in that article was the kid who said he needed GPS to find his way around... in a village of 2000 people.

Before smart phones came along I walked around reading a book. I carried one in my pocket at all times, and any moment I wasn’t forced to speak to someone I whipped it out and read. With the palm pilot I started reading project Gutenberg books on a device. With the iPhone I switched to kindle books.<p>Antisocial does as antisocial does, and no right wing ban on it will prevent me from scrolling, whether it be on vellum, wood pulp, or oled.

&gt; The village has also approved a charter for families on children’s use of screens: no screens of any kind in the morning, no screens in bedrooms, no screens before bed or during meals.<p>Yikes. Who actually wants the government regulating something like this?

&quot;Hear ye, hear ye ...&quot;<p>&quot;Hello, sir, do you have a license for that scroll?&quot;<p>&quot;No, I am but a crier here to announce...&quot;<p>&quot;The rule is no unlicensed scrolling. We&#x27;re going to have to take that scroll into custody&quot;

I&#x27;m reminded of Robin William&#x27;s French Siri impression: &quot;You&#x27;re in France, look around you. Walk down the block, you idiot&quot;.

It would be funny to see a bunch of people huddled up in a designated phone-ers area outside a bar in January to satisfy their instagram addiction.

If there&#x27;s one thing the French are particularly gifted at, it&#x27;s sticking the government&#x27;s nose deep, deep where it strictly does not belong.<p>Even more amazing: when that happens, no one seems to notice that a huge line has been crossed, because by now, they&#x27;ve been shafted that way so many times, it&#x27;s just fairly normal.<p>So sad.

Being friendless has a higher negative impact on lifespan than smoking. It&#x27;s not a big stretch to link phone use to the huge increase in depression, anxiety, and poor social skills. And just like smoking, phone use in public isn&#x27;t limited to the person using it. You can&#x27;t exactly have a conversation with someone who is on their phone. I find myself pulling my phone out whenever my companions also do so.<p>If this seems a bit heavy-handed, it&#x27;s because damaging and addictive habits require collective action to stop. No one walks down the street in San Francisco and tries to convince heroin addicts to stop for other peoples&#x27; good. No one tries to tell drunks and alcoholics to stop overdoing it.<p>They are definitely early, and possibly the first place to do this, but they will surely not be the last. Our youth have been ruined by cheap, omnipresent, and never ending social media content. This is a step in the right direction to make public spaces social again.

From my perspective the ban has to be a plus. At least the mesmerized wouldn&#x27;t be blindly walking across roads whilst glued to their screens and frightening the hell out of motorists who are trying to avoid them.

I&#x27;m betting this village will have the highest adoption rate of Apple Vision Pro helmets.

Note that this is not enforceable.<p>So it&#x27;s not going to work, because they would not need it if people could gone without phone, and people who can&#x27;t won&#x27;t stio just because a bunch of other people will tell them it&#x27;s better.<p>Social pressure doesn&#x27;t work with addicts. Espacially if said addict are to a tool that also makes some tasks 10 times faster.

It&#x27;s a non-event only 200 people voted and no real sanctions.

Maybe banning headphones in public would be enough to encourage a sense of presence while still allowing people to look up directions.

this will only be enforcable in practice by the ones who voted for its favour.

&gt; young people say there’s little else to do<p>They could ... read a book?

I bet those are the same people who fought against vaccinations rules during COVID...

This is the very definition of small government. Anything less is no government, and the only people who, after seriously thinking about it, seriously want no government, are organized criminals, extreme sociopaths, and extreme survivalists who are already living in isolation.

i think there are laws like this in north korea too<p>i wonder if there used to be laws against reading books in public

Fifteen years ago I pulled out my point and shoot camera while on tourism in a random city in Turkey. I wanted to take a picture of a beautiful flower bush outside a shop. The shop keeper rushed out and scolded me not to take pictures and proceeded to tell me to appreciate the beauty with my eyes.<p>The moment stuck with me. Of course he was right. But he was fighting a cultural tsunami.