Planet Internet: Rise of the Smombie!

(for those who need to know: it will take you 1min 33 sec to watch the vid, 2mins 45 seconds to read article, 30 seconds to skim, 2 seconds to share)

front story:

I saw a blind man exiting the London underground one day and as he got up the stairs a woman bumped straight into him because she was on her phone. She actually looked up for a second and tutted at him before carrying on. I watched and then saw him get hit by another person, also on their phone. They didn’t even bat an eyelid and marched on. I went up to him and asked him if he needed a hand across the road. As we walked I asked him if he’d noticed people bumping into him more and he said he had and I told him it was because they were all on their phones. Ah, is that what it is he said…when you have become more blind than the blind it might be time to take note.

back story:

I originally had the idea to make this film as part of a presentation that I was approached to give at a TED event in Havana after they saw my ‘death of conversation’ Ted talk. The organiser informed me they didn’t have wifi or smartphones yet in Cuba and very limited internet access although they were desperate for it, especially the younger generation. I thought it would be  interesting to show them how it had affected our society in the most all-encompassing and unexpected of ways. To be able to highlight some of the negative aspects of constant internet access to people who hadn’t experienced it yet would be like going back in time to our own society and being able to prevent some of the detrimental effects such as social withdrawal, disconnection and addiction before they  took hold.

I thought it would be an amazing  opportunity to be able to possibly steer a society to use this incredible technology without it completely taking over their lives and minds. Sadly I never got to go due to budget issues but decided to make the film anyway rather than leave it on a mental shelf gathering dust. So I spent a week surreptitiously filming & playing chicken with these zombie phone walkers in the west end and found the level of digital engagement compared to reality based interaction quite staggering. I also rather enjoyed trying to walk into these people having got relatively fed up trying to avoid them on a day to day basis.

I know have been fairly (ok, heavily) vocal about the (mis)use of smartphones but for the record I am not anti-technology in any way, but I am very much pro-living and I feel it is really getting in the way.

I will leave you with this thought..when you are lying on your deathbed you will be reminiscing about the life you led, the people you met, the experiences you had..you will not remember even one of those millions of minutes you spent looking at a screen.

According to a U.K survey we check our phones 221 times a day or the equivalent of every 4.3 minutes so all I’m saying is maybe ask yourself on any of those 221 occasions on any given day..could I maybe skip this one and wait another 4.3 minutes?