I\u2019m not sure exactly when, but sometime in the past couple of years western society took the well-worn quasi-zen credo of \u2018Be here now\u2019 and turned it completely on its head. The contemporary mantra is surely: be elsewhere, always.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll see it in any pocket of western society: everyone is consumed by \u2018that hopeless little screen.\u2019*\u00a0 And lest I be accused of old persons\u2019 bias, it\u2019s not just the kids \u2013 a lot of my contemporaries are just as addicted to their phones.\u00a0 Apple\u2019s holiday commercial tried to skew the phenomenon into a warm fuzzy feeling \u2013 all that time, the disconnected distracted teen was actually creating a heart tugging video of the family celebrations to share with everyone, awwww<\/em> \u2013 but as critics have pointed out, nice try, but doesn\u2019t pass the reality check.<\/p>\n Late last year, the syndrome tossed up a new high-watermark of\u00a0 irony when a woman literally walked off a pier and fell into the ocean while checking her facebook page.\u00a0 A non-swimmer, the woman was rescued and borne back to dry land, still clutching her device.\u00a0 Hers is only the latest of a series of such misadventures<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stories like this trivialise the consequences of this behaviour. Which is unfortunate, because it can have some very serious, often lethal consequences.<\/p>\n The lesser of these is the erosion of simple, everyday social intercourse.\u00a0 I lament that meetings, parties, coffee conversations \u2013 any kind of real, face to face human interaction \u2013 are now so routinely hijacked by the demands of the phone.<\/p>\n