<“I came up with the idea for the video when I started to realize how ridiculous we are all being, myself included, when I was at a concert and people around me were recording the show with their phones, not actually watching the concert,” 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,” said Ms. deGuzman, who also wrote the piece, which was directed by Miles Crawford. She mused that, like it or not, experiencing life through a four-inch screen could be the new norm.

Or not. Ms. deGuzman’s video may have landed at one of those cultural moments when people start questioning if something has gone too far and start doing something about it.

Last week, the Unsound music festival in Poland banned fans from recording the event, saying it did not want “instant documentation” and distractions that might take away from the performances. In April, during a show in New York City, Karen O, the lead singer of the rock band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, told audience members to put away their phones (using an expletive to emphasize her point).

A number of New York restaurants, including Momofuku Ko and Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, have prohibited people from photographing their food. (Note to foodies: Your quinoa does not need to be artfully posted with an old-timey look on Instagram.) And, of course, many mothers and fathers who fought to keep the television out of the kitchen may see smartphones as the next threat to dinnertime civility.>

Yeah Yeah Yeah.

So... the phones make us BOTH feel more connected AND more alone?

That, and chroniclers instead of experiencers.  <-- New word.

Chroniclers is a new word? Or experiencers?

I do have a new "forever alone" gif:

:).  Experiencers.

Experiencers gotta experience. 

http://pandawhale.com/post/1147/facebook-and-twitter-make-people-lonelier

Is technology tearing us apart, by Eric Barker:

http://pandawhale.com/post/888/is-technology-tearing-us-apart

We got it all backwards--pervasive technology is what is PREVENTING us from being truly alone and connected to ourselves, which such experience of self-knowledge has always been a prerequisite for true connection and conviviality with others... 

Devices steal time that would otherwise be spent with our own thoughts, or even in a relaxation response of dropping our thoughts, such as when experiencing throwing a frisbee with ourselves...aww, poor Little boy--NOT.  Smartphones and iPads make it too easy and convenient for us to remove ourselves from any contemplative time wherever we are in the creases and interstices of daily life.  They remove all respite from us now because we're always plugged in, always. More's the pity.

We've lost the experience, art and temperament of being alone.  We're instead gaining experience in being distracted by valueless, superficial noise and mock cultural bullshit that contributes little but more greenhouse gas emissions and IPOs for companies that still aren't profitable.

Sigh. 

So we should prescribe for ourselves some alone time ....

Kinda like sleep, it's necessary but it's got to fit your lifestyle and individual needs...are you not getting enough, or getting too much?