Have you ever wondered if smartphones are killing the art of conversation?
British photographer Babycakes Romero raises the question in his project ‘The Death of Conversation’. First published on the website Bored Panda, this series of photos shows people glued to their smartphones when they could be talking, enjoying dinner or just being with their thoughts. Romero gave a TEDx talk in which he argued that smartphones are becoming ubiquitous in more and more areas of our lives, cannibalising the present moment and giving us an easy way to disconnect from life any time and place that we want.
Is he right? Well, consider this: we check our devices an average of 150 times a day. We message, answering a constant barrage of WhatsApp group texts and emails. We catch up on the news. We check the weather forecast where we live and in far flung corners of the globe (just making sure our friends and family have good weather too). We double-check things on Google and Wikipedia (no need to remember things anymore). We pass the time with games that entice us in and don’t let us go. We peek into other people’s lives or share a snapshot from our own through our social networks. We use maps to find new places. We search for long lost friends. We look at product reviews. We buy books. We take silly tests… Therefore, we spend a lot of time oblivious to where we actually are as we wander around cyberspace.
Take a look at Babycakes Romero’s photos and let them inspire some new conversation, in a bar with friends, but without your smartphone—POPSICASE included.
See more at: http://babycakesromero.com/photography/the-death-of-conversation/