Smart (phone), but depressing: leave the cell phones at home!

In 2007 Apple really kicked off the smartphone boom. Today, six years later, it has long since taken on unsightly forms. How obsessed are we with our smartphones? A small protest video shows everyday life in a tech-savvy world that can apparently only be endured by looking through a cell phone. Using the smartphone as a matter of course doesn't stop at situations where such things were previously taboo: at a candlelight dinner with loved ones or even in bed. The bad habit continues to spread.

A video has been making the rounds since the weekend, which holds up a mirror to us all about modern communication behavior: "I forgot my phone". Anyone who looks into this mirror will stop laughing, because it shows what is left by the wayside when you only want to film life and experience every moment that happens in the world only on the display of your own smartphone. And it really is often like that! When meeting family, friends and even loved ones, we have nothing on our minds other than playing around with our smartphones or capturing the moment with the phone camera. It seems as if this is our new, perhaps only way of collecting memories and participating in life.

"I forgot my phone" contrasts the whole Internet madness with a young woman who has forgotten her smartphone and is therefore the only one not handling it. American comedian and actress Charlene deGuzman shows how much smartphones have crept into our everyday lives. "The idea for the video came to me when I realized how ridiculous we all - including myself - were," says deGuzman in an interview with the "New York Times", "when I was at a concert and the people around me around recording the show on their phones but not actually watching the concert." Exactly, I know that too and something like that has been annoying me for years!

The film begins with a couple waking up in bed together, but they don't even notice her because he's already checking his cell phone. Scenes that seem familiar follow: There's a birthday party, for example. The woman without a cell phone wants to present the cake, but both the birthday girl and the invited guests are only concentrating on capturing the moment with their smartphone. Two friends meet for a picnic. The woman without a cell phone wants to toast her companion with champagne, but she only has eyes for her smartphone camera and contorts herself for the best shot of the moment. The end of the day isn't really that exciting either: it turns off the light, and from then on you can only see the bluish glow of the phone's display. A “real” goodnight kiss is no longer possible.

Mentally and emotionally, we are actually no longer there with what we are experiencing. Capturing the moment seems more important than experiencing it. People ignore each other because they stare at their cell phones or talk to someone on the phone while eating, bowling and much more - and completely disrespecting those immediately present. As Charlene writes in her blog: «I have only now learned to appreciate experiencing the real moment: listening to people, seeing their faces, seeing colors, perceiving smells, tasting food - and only now have I realized that everyone, me included, just hanging on his phone. That makes me sad. I'm working on living in the moment - without Instagramming it. Wouldn't you like to practice doing that with me, maybe just for a day, just for a single hour?"

Maybe sometimes it's a good thing to forget your cell phone, just concentrate on your family, friends and loved ones and experience something together - like the young woman in the video, so smart and so at the same time depressing. In any case, Charlene deGuzman no longer has her smartphone in her hand all the time. "I still have my phone with me, but I try to keep it in my purse. Now I just take in the moment and I don't have to post a photo of it."

I forgot my phone