People are often criticised for spending too much time at social events staring at their samrtphones or even just when they’re on, but I’m not sure if a lot of people really do realise how this might be affecting their livelihood.

Images VIA 

Photographer Eric Pickersgill has attempted to illustrate this though with his new series of photographs titled ‘Removed’. In each one he has removed the smartphone from the image before he took the photograph so that to really try and drive home how disconnected people are to one another, even though they’re standing right next to each another a lot of the time.

The results are kinda creepy and depressing to be honest:

Yeah, kinda grim really aren’t they? You can almost just picture everyone crying straight after the pictures have been taken because they no longer have their cellphones and just don’t know what to do without them other than stare where they used to be, rather than interact with their family, friends or surroundings.

Real disconcerting – hopefully it’ll make you try and reduce your screentime in the coming weeks. I know I will be.

For more of the same, check out this woman who lost all ability to move her fingers after overusing her smartphone. Go figure.