Selfieland

Disconnected As a photographer I spend a lot of time out on the street, and one thing I notice all the time is that we live completely disconnected from our surroudings. It's a paradox really, since we live in a world of up-to-the-second information. We're all plugged into the tyranny of the latest trend - I can't remember the last time I crossed paths with someone smiling or looking happy. Dodging self-absorbed beings staring down at their screens, lost in an unreal world, not unlike the undead creatures from Robert Kirkman's graphic novel. We've converted our lives into Big Brother, where social networks have become the highest authority. In an age of digital fast-food, we're capable of uploading photos of our children that will probably be seen by thousands of people, without considering the consequences of such a seemingly innocent act. Reading a book was, until recently, a good distraction against the tedium of everyday life. Should you spot a reader on your travels, just shout "Resist!" Nowadays, Facebook is the world's largest neighbourhood courtyard where we create our profile and rant about hunger, war, the refugee crisis and an endless list of noble causes, which only seem to exist within the social networks. We spend a lot of energy keeping maintaining the logistics of it all, while we obscure our day-to-day existence and become ever more alone, disconnected from real life.