I’m guilty of it.

You are guilty of it.

Almost everyone on this planet is guilty of it.

We are zombies—

walking with our necks bent,

eyes glowing blue in the dark,

devoted to our devices.

Whatever happened to eye contact?

To holding someone’s gaze

just long enough

to feel seen?

Now it feels like too much—

too intimate,

too exposed—

because we’re no longer required to try.

We hide behind glass screens,

swiping past one another,

avoiding the weight

of real connection.

And yet—

we crave it.

Even the most secluded among us

longs for at least one soul

to truly know them,

to offer a single ounce of care.

But even when we are together,

the glow is still between us—

waiting to capture the moment,

instead of letting us live inside it.

We reach to record

what should be felt.

We package memories

for people who aren’t there,

while the ones beside us

fade quietly into the background.

We are doing ourselves a disservice—trading presence for proof,

moments for documentation,

connection for consumption.

Wanting to remember is not wrong.

But reshaping time

around the perfect capture

just to scatter it outward—

that is where we begin to lose

what was never meant

to be held

by a screen.

~~authors ~~

I got so irritated by some social media stories. People around me at the time I was writing this were always on their phones or checking their phones even at parties or group outings. It’s all about appearance instead of reality. There is a fine line between being in control and addicted. Many don’t realize how obsessed they are with how popular they are on socials.