The other day I was walking on a crowded pavement and I noticed everybody was glued to their phones except me.

There was one zombie headed straight for me, so I bumped into him.

He looked up with a blank expression and continued on.

I bumped into another one, he gave me an angry look like I was interrupting his obsession.

Other zombies just look at you with a bored look and don’t even say they are sorry.

What’s the world coming to???

The world is feeling the effects of the intense environment of instant communication.

Are you unable to do without your smartphone for even a few hours?

That’s an ADDICTION!

Screen culture is a world of sound bites, gossip tidbits and news headlines–ideas that don’t stand alone, they are interlinked to everything else.

What is this doing to people’s minds?

The addicted have to stay plugged in for fear of missing something!

This is the life of being constantly connected which is the norm today.

It’s NOT all bad. The internet carries and distributes a lot of information. It can bring us data on anything.

It is the basis of our financial, health and education systems.

This is a dream world our ancestors never experienced.

But humanity still seems in a state of pain, injustice, prejudice, abuse and general unhappiness!

SOMEHOW WE HAVE BECOME THE VICTIMS OF OUR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES.

The state if being withdrawn or isolated from the objective world is having a bad effect on our mental health!

We shouldn’t moan about technology, but develop self-control, like we do with other temptations in life.

The public is addicted to their smartphones and this makes some people depressed and anxious.

The need for instant connection to others is a need we can’t control.

We spend more time on social media trying to connect with others digitally but we spend less time interacting face-to-face.

So, people have to learn how to self-regulate this device in their hands.

Lets talk a bit about the importance of face-to-face communication.

Some people can go an entire day without actually interacting with others!

They rely on emails, texting and social media.

Digital communication tends to be impersonal.

Advantages of face-to-face communication:

First is Non-Verbal Clues.

You can read a person’s body language to see if they’re interested or not in what you are saying.

Next is Effectiveness–emailing and texting back and forth is less effective than getting your ideas over to someone in one go–face-to-face.

Face-to-face creates a personal touch to your communication.

It also builds relationships, it builds a bond between people.

And lastly, your information retains confidentiality through face-to-face in a private setting.

Face-to-face is still the most efficient way of communicating between people because it’s personal and you can get a direct response from the other person.

It’s not enough to just say the words, we need eye contact, body language and facial expressions to communicate our feelings.

Face-to-face is the best way of communicating because you can avoid misunderstandings that may occur in writing.

Too much digital attention is the cause of a shallow, scattered mindset especially in the young.

So lets learn some self-control over our digital world.

In the meantime…here comes another glassy-eyed zombie headed straight for me.

GET OUT OF THE WAY YOU DIGITAL SLEEPWALKER!!!