Once you become anxious about it, witnessing it at scale can feel like wandering among zombies. Once you become anxious about it, witnessing it at scale can feel like wandering among zombies. Last year, an article by Breda O’Brien in The Irish Times bemoaned people not giving up seats on public transport, referring to seat-withholders “stolidly gazing ahead”. (This bit won’t happen to me, because I’m much too anxious to ever take up one of those seats. The big question here is what we are willing to do to steer ourselves away from the impending phone-zombie future?

Source: The Irish Times November 16, 2025 20:40 UTC