‘Only in Bondi’: Video of woman using her phone while swimming leaves Aussies gobsmacked
A video of a woman swimming laps at an iconic Sydney pool has caused a major stir online, with one detail being branded “dystopian” and “bleak”.
Footage from one of Australia’s most iconic swimming pools has caused a major stir online, with people left in disbelief at one swimmer’s bizarre act while doing some laps.
The video, shared to social media by popular meme page, Brown Cardigan, showed a woman swimming in one of the lanes at the famous Bondi Icebergs pool.
At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, with multiple people swimming laps in the sunshine.
However, the video them zoomed in on a woman kicking along on her back but, instead of incorporating the use of her arms as you would in a typical backstroke, she had a phone held out in front of her face instead.
The woman used her legs to propel her through the water while appearing to scroll on her phone. A few seconds later, she held the phone straight up above her, seemingly filming or taking a photo of her swim.
“Good to see people just being in the moment, maximising their screen time, never not being online and overshading every possible minute of their lives,” Brown Cardigan captioned the video when sharing it over the weekend.
The footage sparked an immediate reaction, with hundreds of people gobsmacked by what they were seeing.
“This may be the most dystopian thing I’ve ever seen,” one person said, while another added, “so this is insane”.
“Only in Bondi,” another declared, with someone else saying, “There’s no coming back from where we are as a species.”
“Me WFH tryna keep Teams green,” one person joked.
“Hey Sally, just checking, are you at your desk? Your background is… unusually bright,” another wrote, poking fun.
“POV: you’re addicted to your phone but also to the beach life,” another said, with someone else branding the video “bleak” and “sad”.
Others went as far as to proclaim “we are all cooked”, while another simply had “no words”.
There were a few people who saw the more light hearted side of the video.
“I see a multi tasker,” one person said, while another added, “I back it”.
Another person said they felt like a “hypocrite” judging the swimming while sitting on their lounge and scrolling on their own phone in the middle of the day.
Others said the woman was being “real” and said doing laps while on your phone was a “slay”.
Despite the light hearted nature of the post, phone addiction is a real issue plaguing Australians.
A recent study from Amazon Kindle revealed just how dire our screen habits are, with the research showing a quarter of Aussies surveyed receive notifications right up until they go to sleep at 10.42pm.
These notifications come from smartphones, smartwatches, laptops, and tablets throughout the day, resulting in over half respondents feeling frequently distracted and struggling to refocus.
“Every time we receive a notification – whether it’s a ping, vibration, or visual alert – our brain perceives it as something requiring immediate attention,” neuroscientist Dr Mark Williams told news.com.au earlier this year.
“This activates our cognitive control network, diverting focus away from what we were doing.”
Once distracted, he explains, it takes anywhere from 60 to 90 seconds to fully regain focus and engage with the original task.
“This constant switching between tasks trains our brains to be in a state of high alert, diminishing our ability to concentrate for extended periods.
“The more frequently we get distracted, the harder it becomes to sustain deep focus over time, which negatively impacts our efficiency and productivity.”
On top of this, the research revealed that 78 per cent of Aussies check their devices every hour, with some doing it up to 50 times in a 60 minute period.
“Notifications can trigger a release of dopamine, leading to compulsive checking of phones in anticipation of a new notification,” Dr Williams said.
