How Mobile Phones Changed Public Spaces and Human Connection
How Mobile Phones Changed Public Spaces and Human Connection
How Mobile Phones Changed Public Spaces and Human Connection
A student argues that phone use in spaces hides behavior. By looking up and observing, we glimpse manners, brief conversations, and psychology behind human interactions we miss when eyes stay glued to screens.
Phones and Public Spaces
We all love to look at our phones, no one can deny that. Whether it is at home, outside or even at social gatherings. The phone is always there to ensure we don’t miss a second of stimulation. For now, let’s just focus on the public spaces part.
Being a student, I generally have to commute a lot and I do spend a lot of time in public spaces. Admittedly, I do look at my phone a lot when I am outside but I have stopped during the past year particularly because one of my professors told us to just observe people once in a while… and also cause my phone’s battery life isn’t great but mainly because of my professor.
Missing out on life
I do notice a lot of interesting things we miss out on because we’re buried in our phones. When we observe people, it isn’t just staring, we can learn more about human behaviour. Mannerisms, psychology, brief conversations. They are all around us. We just have to look up from time to time and see it.
Public interactions are a thing of the past. One of the reasons has to be attributed to the fear of safety these days but the phone has influenced that as well. There used to be a time people would grumble about a bus being late but nowadays we’re too busy being self-absorbed, staring down at our phones, earpods plugged in. Even if someone tried to start a conversation with us, we would not be able to hear them.
Finding Balance with Technology
Nevertheless, phones are not a bad thing, not at all. I don’t mean to criticize the device in any way here. Phones have made us feel so much safer especially when we’re in a strange, new place. Phones have so many uses, we must know when and where to use it.
Public spaces used to be a place for community. The serendipity of meeting the love of your life or engaging in a philosophical conversation with a stranger is no longer a possibility. We’re too afraid to look up from our phones to notice that life is moving around us. We need to learn to look up from time to time and let the world speak to us.
#LookUp, #PhoneDetox, #PublicSpaces, #HumanBehavior, #ObserveMore
