I don’t have the hard statistics on this one, but I feel like I see more people crying in public these days than ever before. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is odd to see what are considered private moments burst through so openly. Is the world sadder now, with all our economic struggles? Is being connected to more people an opportunity for more disappointment? High school never really turns out right. Or are we just living privately in plain sight, existing within the smartphone in our hand or pocket without regard to what’s around us? As if we were in sort of a virtual phone booth. The latter is my suggestion of what it’s all about. We’re someplace else–maybe even some other time–even when we’re here and now.

The opening of “Connected, but Alone?” by Armando Duran at Medium:

“We live in the age of distraction with our multiple technological devices which in a way ‘give’ us the sense that we are connected to the world, to our friends, to our loved ones and to to the people that we share our lives with.

For a few months now, I have been noticing this behavior almost everywhere I go. Groups of friends and families gather to be together for multiple reasons. Yet their minds are elsewhere as most of the people have a device with which they can feel ‘connected’ with other people that are not with them in the present moment.

Technology has always inspired me as to what advancements we can achieve and how technology can make our lives easier. It is almost unstoppable the consumerism that has been built around getting the newest thing that there is.

I am not sure how much we, as intelligent human beings, stop and reflect on what is the impact in our psychology and our consciousness by the technological inventions we ourselves create. Sometimes the only way to make people reflect on something is when things start to go really bad.”