It is a beautiful morning with singing birds and bright sunshine. Charlene wakes up and cradles in her boyfriend’s arms silently while her boyfriend pays no mind and checks his smartphone. After breakfast, they go out running. Charlene’s boyfriend talks with someone on the phone so long that Charlene has to stop to wait for him. During lunch, she tries to communicate to colleagues looking into their eyes, but nobody cares by saying simple words because they care about more their phones. After work, with friends, Charlene goes to bowling. When she finishes her round and offers her hands to have a high five, nobody responds to her. Without a doubt, all the people are staring at phones.
These are the plots shown in the video ‘I Forgot My Phone,’ which had been viewed more than 50 million times on Youtube. This two-minute clip depicts a typical day that is downright dystopian: people ignore Charlene as they stare at their phones. At the end of the video, Charlene goes back in bed with her boyfriend; he is still checking his smartphone. Although her boyfriend puts his arm around her, there is quite a feeling of loneliness crushed out from the screen when I watched it. We should face the fact that technology makes us more alone, in spite of technology is supposed to make us more connected.
It is not an uncommon thing to see that people’s lives are getting occupied by phones during family meetings, at cinemas, while having meals with friends, in classes, and even while walking across streets. We spend too much time in experiencing life through a four-inch screen every day.
I still remembered that last summer when I attended my high school class reunion, instead of talking to others, everyone was paying attention to check their smartphones and take pictures for dishes for posting on Wechat and Instagram. I tried to begin a topic to make them get involved in sharing and discussing, but only a few responded to me. After some perfunctory words, they stared at phones again. It should be a memorable time for us to stay together with high school classmates. However, I doubted the meaning of why we spent time in organizing a reunion because we even can have a group video call at home. I will never forget that moment. I had millions of words and questions to talk and discuss with my classmates who I have not seen for a long time after graduation, but the only thing I could do was keeping in silence. The feeling at that moment will never be forgotten. Familiar classmates and friends surrounded me, but I felt lonely deeply. As what Ms. deGuzman said in an interview, ” It makes me sad that there are moments in our lives where we’re not present because we’re looking at a phone.”
Someone may claim that technology makes us more connected by providing another platform to make new friends on the internet. But, it is not the real life. The number of your friends on Facebook or Instagram cannot replace the happiness you get by having a face-to-face conversation with people in daily life.
Think about it. How long haven’t you hang out with your close friends？We can send hundreds of “hug emoji” to anyone on the internet, but all of them are not worth a real hug in real life. We should admit the advantages and conveniences brought by technology, but we also should have boundaries and limits on using them. When you are in public, and you start to feel bored, step away from the phone, divert your attention from the contact list on Facebook, just talk to the one next to you, and enjoy the feeling of existence in reality.
Echo liu 