A series based upon a baby boomer's observations of Millennial society.
Mobile phones are a pestilence. A scourge upon the imagination.
There are some positives. But, overall they degrade the human experience.
Look around you. Count the number of people captivated by their phones. They are unaware of you, and probably unaware of their companion(s).
Young people have abdicated the art of conversation. I attended a party recently of twenty-somethings. Most were gazing their phones. Scrolling. Typing. Catatonic. It may as well have been a party for the deaf and mute. In fact, I may likely have had more communication with the latter. At least there would have been eye contact.
People do not think anymore. Every question becomes a project for Google Search. Why think? Google has all the answers.
I can remember when an idle mind lead to great outcomes. The idle mind stokes the imagination: lovers glance, ideas percolate. Part of the wonderful experience of being alive is in the uniqueness and connectedness of the world around us. Not the blue screen. The rhythm of our shoes hitting the sidewalk -- or the dirt road -- is itself portable music.
There was an episode of Star Trek Next Generation -- worth watching -- where such a portable device -- a game -- distracted the Enterprise crew to a fault, whereby the crew were no longer able to perform their duties. The Ktarians offered the mobile devices as a gift. And it turned out to be a Trojan Horse: the game was psychologically addictive (a Virtual Reality Addiction, like, say, Pokemon Go), and the crew became mind-addled, unable to carry out their critical functions. Sound familiar? The Game episode aired in 1991, a prophetic warning before mobile phones existed.
Eric Pickersgill | www.ericpickersgill.com/removed