Look Up...

[Raymond Fries]

... a must see.

http://blog.petflow.com/this-is-a-video-everyone-needs-to-see-for-the-first-time-in-my-life-im-speechless/

[Rod Sheridan]

Wow, excellent..........Thanks.............Rod.

[Bruce Page]

LOML & I were at an upscale dinner restaurant full of young people last week and 40% of them were staring into their phones. It was unnerving and sad.

This should be required viewing for every person under 40.

[Ole Anderson]

And it is not just the kids that have an electronic addiction. My wife is as bad or worse than my grandkids. Not unusual for her to spend 10 or 20 minutes "waking up" by checking her phone for messages and such before she even gets out of bed. Kind of ironic that you must log on to a device to view the video about stepping away from your smart phone. And we spend time on the computer to share it.

[Moses Yoder]

I agree that too much is a bad thing but totally disagree with the emotionalism this video portrays. 200 years ago if there were videos, there would have been some telling us how the end of slavery would be the end of the US. Even fewer years ago their would have been videos portraying the horrors about to come on us due to allowing women to vote. In the 70's there would have been videos telling us our youth was going to be totally useless due to rock music. Times change. They are different, which is not better or worse.

[Andrew Joiner]

What gets me is how many people are looking down at their phones while driving! If there was a hotline to call and report them I'd stop at a phone booth and turn them in;)

[Brian Elfert]

No matter how tempting I won't look at my phone while driving for any reason even while stopped at a light. My realtor will text me that he is running late while sitting at a stoplight which is not even legal in Minnesota. I'm not going to see the text until I get to our meeting point anyhow.

[David Weaver]

I agree that too much is a bad thing but totally disagree with the emotionalism this video portrays. 200 years ago if there were videos, there would have been some telling us how the end of slavery would be the end of the US. Even fewer years ago their would have been videos portraying the horrors about to come on us due to allowing women to vote. In the 70's there would have been videos telling us our youth was going to be totally useless due to rock music. Times change. They are different, which is not better or worse.

I agree. I ride the bus to work, I don't see a lot of difference in ages, until people get to a certain age. Anyone 60 or younger is on their phone the entire ride, and folks in town have their phones with them the whole time. Before the "everybody has a data phone" craze, nobody talked to each other on the bus, anyway, so it's not like anything has been lost there.

The younger kids will still have to fend with the same things the rest of us do, learning to earn a living, and in the future, that's probably going to involve being digitally available all the time. I didn't watch the video above, but gathered enough from its comments to get a bad vibe about it being another video that shames people about what everyone else should do, or evokes guilt about it. Life's too short for that kind of stuff.

[Pat Barry]

What gets me is how many people are looking down at their phones while driving! If there was a hotline to call and report them I'd stop at a phone booth and turn them in;)
I agree with your sentiment but I hazard a guess that most would call it in from the road!

[Andrew Joiner]

I agree with your sentiment but I hazard a guess that most would call it in from the road!

Yes, it's ironic isn't it Pat.

[Jim Matthews]

Three observations:

Does anyone see the irony in this being linked to a "Share on Facebook" button?
We're doing much the same thing, right here in The Creek - for many of the same reasons decried in the video.

I live in a misbegotten part of the World populated by people who are proud of their disregard for anyone not related to them by birth.
My wife made the important observation that for those online friends that transition from the virtual to corporeal sphere,
the relationships are real and provide genuine physical support where needed.

I would agree that the relentless curation of your "brand" or "image" are vapid pursuits for anyone that's not a performer.

George Carlin, the Sage of the Stage said it best:

"Americans have been bought off and silenced by toys and gizmos. And no one learns to question things."
george carlin - Brain Droppings

[James Conrad]

Seeing a couple out to dinner with one or both of their faces stuck in their phones, or a parent who chooses the same instead of watching their kid at a sports practice/game, is just sad to see that we have become so disinterested in human interaction.