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There is a reason that the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" is so accurate. Especially when it comes to the new series of photos by Eric Pickersgill from his collection entitled Removed, which has gone viral.
Describing the photos verbally is challenging. How does one encapsulate a feeling into a series of adjectives? Eerie? Sad? Heartbreaking? Perhaps one might say the photos are dystopian or otherworldly. You can see more of the collection on his website here.
In the photos, he has individuals pose with their smartphone in hand and removes the device right before taking the shot. Something about seeing those expressionless, often flat, even dead-looking faces is stark and deeply moving.
For years, I have written on social media dependence. The research is clear. The skyrocketing depression, low self-esteem, and rising anxiety are linked to social media usage. And yet, we remain glued to our devices. Whether it is as innocuous as checking for work emails or fatuous as taking selfies, our palm-sized computers simply can’t leave our sides.
Sheer panic runs through us when we think we may have misplaced them… this actually happened to my husband only a few weeks ago when we were traveling, and I’d consider him a low-tech, cool-headed type of guy.
So often, I’ve aimed to be that person who sits and gets her haircut without scrolling through some type of feed or article. I feel awkward, they feel awkward, so I just pick up a magazine for show, because staring off into space being lost in thought is socially unacceptable anymore.
Too often, we have become so accustomed to phones and their permanent place in our lives that we miss how ordinary things can no longer be done with our phones left behind. Getting groceries, going to the gym, going for a walk. Most of us can’t be without our phones far from reach. I’ll admit that even as I type this article, my phone is just over a foot away from me.
How do we start taking a step back and taking stock of what is happening all around us so insidiously? The reality is that change needn’t be so drastic. I published a card deck several months back (incidentally about the same size as a phone!) on this very idea. We don’t have to dump our devices, because indeed they can be our friends.
It’s the simple things. Leaving our phone outside our bedroom when we sleep. Re-engaging with reading actual books and not just screens. Processing your feelings in a journal instead of shouting your innermost thoughts to the world on social media (which oddly is more acceptable than said previous example of me staring into space).
We can easily pare down our devices. Even though my Apple Watch desperately wants me to wear it daily, penalizing me through lowering my move goal for not wearing it all day, I say, forget it! I use the device to track exercise, no more, no less.
Certainly, our devices bring convenience, but they are also our greatest babysitter, for children and adults alike. Bored? Just scroll until you find something interesting. And slowly we stop having the capacity for reading a book all the way through. They just aren’t entertaining enough. Then on the flip side, terms such as “grit” become trendy, because we realize in our core that we could be doing more with our lives. Where is the balance, and when do we start taking a hard look at ourselves?
The exhibit by Pickersgill is troubling but also deeply inspiring. Are we finally seeing how our technology is shaping our lives in a post-apocalyptic dystopian way? One can’t deny the tragic sadness of being Alone Together, the aptly named title of Dr. Sherry Turkle’s book (2011), which in many ways predicted how far we have devolved.
Only a months ago, a study came out with the news that 1 in 5 millennials has no friends at all. This is unsurprising at best, devastating at worst. A study by CIGNA suggests that loneliness is the new public health epidemic, rivaling obesity and smoking. Pickersgill’s photos confirm that and so much more.
