The mobile phone epidemic has added many terms to the English language. Here are those I came across online hunched over my smartphone: ‘text neck’, ‘smartphone thumb’ and ‘smartphone hunch’. The other day, my smartphone lexicon expanded by one more term — ‘smartphone snatch’. This time, I made the discovery offline, on the IT Corridor.
From Navallur to Thoraipakkam, flex posters warn passersby of ‘smartphone snatchers’: Illustrations accompanied by an exhortation to avoid using phones while walking or riding a motorcycle.
Smartphone-snatching incidents are not restricted to the IT Corridor. But, as a huge number of digital natives work in its offices, the police feel it needs this awareness exercise.
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The Thoraipakkam, Kannagi Nagar and Semmencherry police stations, under the Thoraipakkam Range, are conducting this campaign, displaying these flex boards at points where software professionals are known to congregate in large numbers.
“Mobile phone snatching incidents keep happening on this stretch; hence, this campaign. We met residents’ welfare associations and HR departments of IT companies, and sought their support in promoting the campaign,” says M G Sundar, Inspector, Semmencherry police station.
A few commercial establishments have provided sponsorships, enabling the printing of these flex posters. In my opinion, the residents have to be warned of smartphone accidents too. Heavy vehicles invade service lanes on this arterial road. Being immersed in one’s phone can blind people to such dangers.
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