When did you last see someone walking down the street so engrossed in their phone that they either:

– almost walked into you, somebody else or a lamppost?
– actually walked into you, somebody else or a lamppost?

The chances are that you have seen at least one of these things happen and probably not too long ago. The reason I’m talking about this is that it struck me the other day (almost literally) as someone almost walked into me while he was looking down immersed in his phone that this was a metaphor for how we live now.

We can get so focused on what we are doing that we not only ignore what is around us now, but also where we are heading in the future.

If you’re walking down the street looking down at your phone, you may just bump into someone and get embarassed, but if it’s your life and you’re not looking where you’re going, who knows where you might end up? You might even metaphorically ‘walk into the street in front of a passing car’ if you’re not looking where you’re going.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of both technology and also of taking life as it comes as it can be exciting and fun not knowing what’s going to happen.

However my point here is that from time to time, we need to look where we are going to be sure that we are happy with where we are going because if not, we can then actively choose to change the direction of where we are going to then go where we want to go.

And we can’t do that staring down at our phones, can we?

(Perhaps ironically, I am writing and publishing this post on my Iphone inspired by a recent Blogging101 prompt, however I’d like to assure you and any other pedestrians out there that I’m sitting down in the comfort of my favourite armchair, so you’re perfectly safe.)