The cultural shift is complete. We're all just alone with our smartphones, even when we're surrounded by other humans.
The extent of our obsession with capturing every moment instead of merely just experiencing them is highlighted in the viral short film, I Forgot My Phone. It's now at nearly 20 million views and if you haven't seen it, you must have gone without your phone too long.
Charlene deGuzman — who wrote and stars in the film — shows scenes that can hit too close to home, saying something about how we often use technology at the expense of forging real, human connections. Artists use hyperbole to express a truth, but when NPR editor Avie Schneider first saw this, he said, "This is not that exaggerated."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.