I have seen people bouncing into other people or against traffic signs or other obstacles, just because they have been distracted. People are walking around, starring at a little screen carried around. Humankind will die out some day, but probably earlier than I expected, because of smartphones. Death by smartphone. Governments of this world try to save their people with laws, e.g. with banning smartphone usage while driving. Good move, but that’s not enough. Well there will be less accidents because the drivers will not be distracted too much then, but think about the millions smartphone distracted pedestrians. They are still walking around uncontrolled. Do you have any idea how hard it is to avoid to hit them? It’s almost unavoidable in crowded areas. Well, some people might call this natural selection now, but have you ever tried to remove the leftovers from the insects splashed against your cars windshield? 😉

But seriously, smartphone users are able to fade out their environment completely. They vanish into their own world and everything around becomes nonexistent and unimportant. An occasionally smile tells us they are still alive in there. But that’s already the upper limit of the external communication when focused on a smartphone screen.

Some years back the landscape at a usual interurban train station was different. Well, the number of people was comparable, but there was some interaction. At least people have seen each other. And it was interesting to simply watch other people, especially in the morning. Some still sleeping, some happy, some angry, some simply there. Many with facial expressions which warned you: “Don’t even think about talking to me!”. Others signaled “Look at me, look at me, I am important!”. There are women of the type “I am dressing as sexy as possible, but how dare you starring at me you pig!”. Or the shy “Don’t look at me, I am not here.” office guy. But there has been some basic interaction, people have been interested in each other, at least to a certain degree. But nowadays, the majority of the human beings vanishes into their smartphone world, completely disconnected from the current environment and the very moment. If somebody would jump naked and with a happy smile over the train platform, they wouldn’t even recognize. And no, I will not prove that!

But think about the long-term consequences for the younger generation. They will have trouble to socialize in the real world. If you are socially active, but restricted to an online world, then you never learn how to interact with real human beings. It’s easy to express a positive attitude with a smiley in a chat window, but how to do that in front of a nice girl in reality? But anyway, maybe this question is not really important because most of the power-smartphone user will die in accidents in young ages anyway. Smartphones will have demography influence.

But know what, have you ever tried to wake up such a human vanished into the smartphone world? Just pass her and scream suddenly and loudly “watch out!” into her ear. Fantastic reactions, the complete range from confusion, over falling smartphones up to anger, hate and at times death by smartphone. But if you try that, be prepared to run! But the advantage is with you, smartphonies are not used to run fast. Live is beautiful, isn’t it?