04/07/2026
You don’t help an addict by enabling them. You support them by first building an environment that helps them to rehabilitate.
These red lights are installed at crosswalks in Hong Kong because too many pedestrians were so absorbed in their phones during red lights that they weren’t noticing when it turned green. So instead of addressing the problem, the city built around it.
Audio signals already exist at these crosswalks. They already tell you when to go. But apparently that’s not enough. This is the new default, and the government just folded to match it, in the name of “safety”. It’s one thing for tech companies to build addicting products, but the government spending public money to accommodate that addiction is something else.
We talk a lot about unplugging at Neon Fun Club, usually with warmth and zero judgment. But this one of the rare moments where we’ll say plainly: this is messed up. Normalizing this level of disconnection, and then spending money to enable it further, is something worth being upset about.
The good thing though is you still have free will, and you can choose to look across the street and people watch like usual, or day dream about what chores you have to do when you get home. The choice is still yours. It’s not too late to take some power back.
Let us know if you’ve seen these anywhere around the world & how you feel about them 🚥🌎