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Addiction to Technology, Dehumanizing and Depersonalizing influences of technology, Eric Pickersgill, Love in a time of technology, Posture of a New Age, Removed, Social Media, Social Media and the Soul, Technology
Image by Eric Pickersgill
Bored Panda reported on American photographer Eric Pickersgill who “photoshopped away the smartphones and digital devices from his portraits of everyday life. The project “Removed” aims to show our addiction to modern technology, social media, and hyper-connectivity. Pickersgill knows that he’s also amongst the addicted.”
The photographer was inspired by a chance encounter in a New York cafe:
Family sitting next to me at Illium café in Troy, NY is so disconnected from one another… not much talking. Father and two daughters have their phones out. Mom doesn’t have one or chooses to leave it put away. She stares out the window, sad and alone in the company of her closest family. Dad looks up every so often to announce some obscure piece of info he found online.
“[Pickersgill] achieved the surreal effect in his photography art by asking strangers and friends to remain in position, taking the shot and then removing the devices in final photoshopped pictures” (Dainius).
Image by Eric Pickersgill
Posture of a New Age?
As I wrote in “Posture of a New Age?“,
This physical pose betrays a relational posture tending to isolate and alienate itself to the enclosure of technology.
In “Social Media and the Soul“, I wrote,
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, a computer scientist, or a social scientist to know something’s going on in our society that we have never faced before. But it has taken some insiders from social media technologies to confirm what researchers are beginning to find, and what families have already found – sometimes too late.
What will it take for us to see the problem, and then reverse the tide of technological contamination in our relationships? We’ve adapted; this much is true of our species. But we’ve maladapted too; this is equally true of us.
Love in a Time of Technology
Image by Eric Pickersgill
In a few short decades, we have let technology create a psychic distance the oceans could not fathom. We hardly knew we were letting devices into the most intimate parts of our lives, and interfering with the most common aspect of being human: relating to another person, face to face, attending, listening, and responding.
As you look at these images, what is missing? I don’t mean what is missing from the hands of the people – I mean what else is missing between the people? What do you observe, and what have noticed about the ways you have adapted/maladapted to technology?
What insight do you have on being a relational person?
For more of the images see: “Removed: Photographer Removes Phones from His Photos to show how terribly addicted we’ve become.”
An important conversation, Rusty. My sons cannot understand why I refuse to upgrade my cellphone to the Smart Phone with its super camera and millions of apps. My antiquated flip-phone serves me well in calling them whenever I need to. I refuse to lose my humanity to a device that keeps us apart even when we are physically close to each other, as every one of the above photos reveal.
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Yes, it takes intentionality to not “lose our humanity to a device”. I am encouraged though that my children’s generation are becoming more aware of screen time for their children. I think a whole 1 or 2 generations were not as mindful – and now there has been much more conversation. Still, it takes a lot of thoughtfulness to be thoughtful again in relating humanity with each other. I am mindful of my blog as a means of “social media”, and I regularly reign in any compulsive impulse to always read and write. Here’s to being more fully human.
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