Stop Looking at Your Phone: A Helpful Guide was a humorous book of comics illustrated by Son Of Alan. It was a riot of a read (although there’s really not that much to read), full of ominous scenarios where diverted attention by staring at a cellphone can prove fatal to oneself or others, or at least show the reader that he or she is missing out on an enriched life. I enjoyed laughing through this book, and two of my favourite illustrations are featured below. While I realize the light-heartedness of a collection of cartoons, the sinister part of me that owns two dial phones cannot help but sit royally on my dial throne and shake my finger at all the pathetic people who have sold their souls to the curse of cellular technology. I wonder at how lonely people must be to feel the need to check their phones constantly for messages (look at the illustration below: Social Media Check–15 times). So conditioned are cellphone users to react immediately to their ringtone that they must drop everything to attend to such meaninglessness. Their lives are on hold as they live through tiny screens, taking pictures or videos of events that they will never look at or watch, not even once. They have destroyed the magic of living in the moment. The illustrator, Son Of Alan, showed how much people miss out in life by the distraction of their cellphones. Funny that the last story on the evening news before I turned the TV off to go on-line to post this review was a warning to parents to keep their eyes on their children when they are playing in the water. It is too easy to be distracted by your phone while your children are at the beach or in the pool. What will you do should your child drown? Blame Candy Crush?
