Mesmerized
You see it in the streets. You see it in elevators. You see it in the gym. You see it glowing in yoga classes, but silenced. You see it when people are riding bikes in city streets. You see it at the beach, and even in swimming pools. You see it when people are having dinner at home, or in restaurants. You even see it when they are having sex…haha.
It is the gaze of that glowing small screen; the person’s look is enchanted, entranced, taking virtually all of one’s attention. It’s almost as if there is no one and nothing else around.
What is it? What has so mesmerized the population and taken attention away from just about everything else? It’s the Smartphone, of course, and people’s faces stuck in it everywhere you go.
This raises some legitimate questions that bear thought.
1. What are people getting from this device that is unavailable from mere mortals?
2. What thrill, or juicy piece of information will enhance their lives?
3. What opportunity will change their finances?
4. Who will want to have sex with them, or God forbid, actually love them?
5. Who will want to be friends with them on Facebook?
6. What has this device provided that is so thrilling, that makes people ignore surroundings and the humans in them?
The answers to these questions are not easy, and deserve substantial deliberation. It is rare today to be in any metropolitan area around the world without witnessing this phenomenon, without people clutching their phones and nervously checking them for something. Is it validation as a human that these devices provide, because other forms of validation today are just so difficult to achieve? One can only wonder…
This is a great development to those who own Apple stock, of course, because this addiction is almost guaranteed to provide a sustained surge in stock prices and dividends.
But for all other mortals, different issues prevail. How much of our humanity are we willing to sacrifice for these electronic connections?
