Today Alice doesn't go down the hole into wonderland, she goes online instead! Then it's bye bye... -------------------------------------------------- The problem with the looking glass is that it is the looking glass, not the living glass! A while back I was attending a social media event. It was my first of this kind. It was not my first event that I had attended, but this was a first for many reasons. The day began well. Meeting people, introductions, chat, excitment and some conversation at meeting people In Real Life away from the digital screens we use. Then it began to happen. A group I was with walked to a restuarant location near our hotels. We all wanted to eat some food. I expected more conversation, getting to know more about these professional people from various fields and careers. I did, but not as I expected.   Out came every small screen in the possession of all those present. Some had two screens. No one was without. I had an old iphone 3 and was on a limited plan. Not yet birthed into the looking glass phenom' a newbee as it were.   These people, googled what was being talked about. Texted or tweeted what was being talked about. Ocassionally looked up to drink, afirm, nod or laugh at something. Before deepdiving back into their looking glass. I was aghast, amazed, in awe of what I was seeing.   Our server came, used to this lack of eye contact. Sorted out what people were going to eat and left. Food arrived, people ate, and continued with the hunt for the white rabbit or the Queen of hearts. No one was perturbed. I sat in wonder.   Into the evening and the social gathering was organized around another venue. Pictures being taken by a photographer were being tweeted, posted, shared, emailed, and who knows what else. All live. Now. And, the people in the room who were the participants in this event were the ones recieving these tweets posts and more... It all was astonshing. I spoke the next day at this event. My 10 minute topic went trending in the city. I was being monitored, tweeted, posted and lauded live. I felt like I was in a surreal location of the world. Nope, I was in the new world that was being replicated all around me. That was four years ago nearly. Things have changed and how.   No one can see around them. Smartphone addiction, particularly among children, is altering the way we interact with one another. A member of the Kwon civic group in South Korea, Kim Nam-Hee, asked a classroom of 10 year old students compare the hours they spend on their smartphones with the time they spend interacting with relatives. She found a disturbing gap between the amount of digital and human interaction they were engaging in. -Techaddiction   As the screen changes so does the attention span People watch the news. It is often not pleasant. It is often unsettling. But, we have gotten used to clicking away to something more pleasing. this isn't normal. There is no time to reflect upon the atrocities, horrors and wins. Everything becomes abstract. Nothing to see here, move along.   Everything is being driven by the looking glass. People are cherry picking the world in which they live in. The reality distortion of field of a famous computer executive is here now for anyone and everyone. The iPhone 5, as with many other technologies of today, invoke a variety of social problems, too. One of the main problems is the distraction from the real world. People can be so involved in what they’re doing on their phones that they can forget about what really matters and that is real life. -Wikia The backlash to digital screens is real The host collects phones at the door of the dinner party. At a law firm, partners maintain a no-device policy at meetings. Each day, a fleet of vans assembles outside New York’s high schools, offering,