This weekend my family and I were having lunch at one of our favorite watering holes, a nice little Italian restaurant downtown. People walked by... couples, groups of friends, young families. A gorgeous day in April.
But there was something decidedly eerie about all these people walking by.
Almost all were walking heads down, staring into their smartphones. Not enjoying the sunshine, not browsing the windows of the shops and restaurants they passed by, not interacting (although a few did talk... about the games or whatever was on their screens).
It looked like a scene from a zombie film.
Kind of like the one a year or two ago at the height of the Pokemon craze. I felt like an alien in my own town b/c I was the only one NOT walking around trying to catch little ephemeral creatures darting about a virtual reality plane.
Granted, these are not scientific, peer-reviewed studies. It's anecdotal evidence at best. But "anecdotes" like these seem to be playing out across our cities. When we left the restaurant, we took a walk down the main street. The scenario repeated block after block.
Beside the obvious safety issue (you're supposed to look where you're walking, 'coz, you know, cars and curbs and other people and their children), there's the false connectedness issue. Call me old-school, call me old-world (I'm both), but when we spend our lives on a screen we're basically giving the finger to the millions of years of evolution we are now enjoying and immensely benefiting from. All the food we eat, our farms and our gardens, the extraordinary diversity of animal, plant and marine life, even our very bodies, are the result of MILLIONS of years of processes we're still learning about.
Besides, if you love your smartphone that much, why spend the energy to drive somewhere to look at it? You can stare at it much more comfortably at home. Better yet, why not call up the plastic surgeon and ask about their smartphone implant options. (Gives the term "plastic" surgeon a whole new meaning doesn't it...)
Don't get me wrong. I'm no luddite. I love my smartphone. I read the news on it every day (that or my laptop. Cable bill was killed years ago). I text. I've got Instagram (which I'm apparently not very good at LOL). And yes I actually make phone calls. But I don't like to live my life through others' well-groomed selfies. I recognize a device can connect you to places you've never been, things you haven't seen, people you'd otherwise never talk to—that is the extraordinary part about mobile communications. But we're losing touch with the difference between the actual real world we live in and the virtual one encased in our devices. That's a line that needs to remain very real. So when I go downtown on a Saturday afternoon, I go for the afternoon and the people and the joy of being outside, in community.
Have mobile devices taken over your town too? What's your take on all this? I would love to hear your stories and opinions.
~ Birgitte
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We're in the home stretch of getting ready for our very first "Create your own Bogo Mogo" workshop this Saturday. The art stands just came in, the video is ready, and Aria's desk is overflowing with plastics we've been gathering for the kids. I was surprised to learn we had to close registration early... we were hoping for about 20 people but last night the coordinator for the City of Mountain View emailed me to say 150 people had signed up.
The room holds nowhere near that, so we're thinking about repeating the workshop this summer—stay tuned!
"Create your own Bogo Mogo" seems more relevant with every passing day. We keep hearing stories of marine life choking on straws and plastic bags. Microplastics have recently been discovered in the deepest parts of the oceans, and the latest? Ready for this? Microplastics are now falling from the skies. That pretty much completes the pollution cycle, doesn't it. We're living on one great, big, beautiful but polluted planet.
Gotta do something about that, real fast.
One thing is to join all the climate actions that are going on every Friday. Another is simply to do your part (this post on my blog lists some things we can all do). Perhaps better yet, harness the talent you have to engage others and spread the word.
That's why we're doing this workshop, and the panel discussion on plastic pollution. Both events are hosted by the City of Mountain View for their Earth Day event this Saturday. The workshop is closed but the panel discussion is still open. It starts at 11:30am and it's free to register.
We'll post photos of the event on Aria's Instagram.
And if you want to organize a Bogo Mogo workshop for your school, email us! We'll be taking the workshop to more places.
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