Our next question: If you could ban one piece of modern technology for everyone in the world, what would it be and why? To take part, drop us a line via this form by 12pm on Wednesday, June 24.
Chan Chun, 9, Po Leung Kuk Camoes Tan Siu Lin Primary School: Flight. It sounds like a perfect way to commute from Kowloon City to Central, but at high altitudes, the air is freezing and low in oxygen. Unless you also have invulnerability, you could pass out or even get sucked into a jet engine!
Victoria Liu, 13, St Paul’s Co-educational College: Hearing thoughts sounds like a cool superpower at first. You’d always know what people think and never feel unsure – even when one day something seems slightly off with a friend. But it would be overwhelming rather than useful. Thousands of thoughts would constantly flood your brain, leaving you stressed.
Holly Wong Ho-yuet, 13, Carmel Pak U Secondary School: Imagine you woke up with super strength. Walking cracks the floor. Brushing snaps your toothbrush. Coffee mugs shatter in your grip. Door handles rip right off. You can’t hug anyone, shake hands or pet a dog. Phone screens crack under your thumb. You’re built for messing things up, not for living. With no benefits, super strength only ruins your ordinary day – so it’s completely useless.
Cherish Chiu Cheuk-wing, 16, Leung Shek Chee College: Superhuman screaming? Epic. You’d shatter concrete with your voice. But in daily life? Utterly useless. Volume is binary: whisper or city-levelling boom. It leaves you with a sore throat that lasts for weeks. You can’t order coffee, talk to friends or whisper secrets without mass destruction. In reality, you’re a socially isolated hazard who communicates strictly via text.
Wong Chin-pang, 17, Pui Kiu College: A flashy but useless superpower is teleporting only 2cm. It sounds dramatic, but it barely moves you more than a tiny shuffle, offers no real advantage and turns “teleportation” into a slow, awkward way of inching across a room rather than anything heroic or helpful.
Amanda Choi, 13, Carmel Pak U Secondary School: Don’t judge me, but when I was younger, I used to dream about summoning butterflies out of my hands. The idea of those swarms of colourful butterflies is just breathtaking. In real life, however, it is pretty useless since there are no scenarios that require you to summon butterflies.
Georgiana Chu, 9, International Christian School: A superpower that sounds awesome but is actually useless would be the ability to breathe underwater, but it deactivates when you get wet. Although the idea of being able to inhale normally in water sounds attractive, you get wet in water – so your power deactivates, leaving you unable to swim ordinarily.
Leah Lei Lok-ching, 17, Cognitio College (Kowloon): Being able to read minds would be a catastrophe, especially for a highly sensitive person. As Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami once suggested, sometimes ignorance is a form of happiness. Rather than helping people make better decisions, knowing every hidden thought could create unnecessary emotional distractions. When those truths cannot be changed, they may interfere with one’s work or studies instead of providing any real benefit. In that sense, mind-reading may sound like a fascinating superpower, but it would be surprisingly useless in everyday life.
Hugo Li, 14, Tai Kwong Hilary College: Emperors and kings used to long for immortality. But is immortality truly good for us? Imagine being immortal; you may feel incredibly lonely because you would constantly outlive everyone around you. You would likely feel devastated as you repeatedly lose your family members and friends. This also lowers your quality of life as you might try to keep a distance from others to avoid heartbreak. To wrap up, is immortality beneficial and important?
Julia Tai Yui-kiu, 13, Po Leung Kuk Tang Yuk Tien College: Invisibility. It sounds cool, as you can be invisible when you feel shame. However, I think it’s useless, since everyone has made mistakes and needs to face them afterwards. Moreover, you will have fewer friends as you hide yourself. They would not be able to help you with your problems. We should stay positive and not feel so ashamed all the time.
