Photo Phone Project

Before I decide to blog about my final project, I wanted to talk about an experience that happened to me on Sunday. It made me think about how much I personally use my phone, and how I try not to be the person my friend was portraying me to be.

On Sunday, my friend came to me and my roommate to ask if she could use us as models for a project she was working on for class. I asked what the project was, and she told me it was about technology taking over our lives. She explained that her project specifically would focus on cell phones, and how they distracted us from connecting to other people. She had to take 30 different photos that showed this idea, in all different places, with all people unable to put their phones down.

She asked my roommate to pose on the couch, sitting next to each other but not talking, simply staring at our cell phones. Next, we shot pictures of us making food in the kitchen, again engrossed in the tiny screens in our hands. We also did a shoot of us eating our food at the kitchen table, but too busy with our portable devices to enjoy the company of friendship while we ate our meal.

I thought the idea for her project was a powerful one. She explained that she would also be shooting in scenery, such as on mountains or by a pond, where the people would be too involved with their phones to notice the beauty around them. She even had an idea of someone searching for images of beautiful scenery on their phones while they were surrounded by the scenery around them. Kind of ironic.

It is increasingly common to see this happen all around us. We see it in class, with students bored by the lecture, pulling out their phones to pass the time. In even more intimate settings, with friends, or on dates, people are still pulling out their phones, and disregarding the others around them. It has become a coping mechanism for anxiety and social situations we want to get out of. Bored? At a loss for words? Just pull out your phone and let all your problems melt away.

I try really hard not to be this person. I strive to make conversation, to find something to talk about, and to put my phone away when I’m in the presence of someone else. I know a lot of people do it, and I don’t like when people do it to me, but how can I tell them it’s rude if I’m doing the same thing? It is still something I am working on, as I constantly get chastised by my sister to put my phone away. She keeps me honest with myself, and she is my role model for being minimal with phone usage. She rarely has her phone out, and I don’t know how she survives without it, but she does, and I think it is all something we can practice doing. Slowly minimizing our phone usage to be more present in our current lives with the people we care about.