New sign warns drivers to watch out for ‘smartphone zombies’

Is this where our society has come to? A new sign warns drivers to watch out for ‘smartphone zombies’ – users so glued to their devices they can’t see approaching cars.

The sign appeared outside a school in Reutlingen, Germany – warning drivers to watch out for phone addicts.

But the sign, which appeared outside the Friedrich-List-Gymnasium school, was created by pranksters, locals believe – and has now been removed.

Smartphone addiction is a serious problem.

The compulsion to take your phone out of your pocket and check for social media alerts builds up in people just like an addiction to hard drugs, experts have warned.

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Professor Erik Peper of San Francisco State University says that overuse of smartphones works like any other kind of substance abuse.

Peper said, ‘The behavioural addiction of smartphone use begins forming neurological connections in the brain in ways similar to how opioid addiction is experienced by people taking Oxycontin for pain relief – gradually.’