No longer noticing life around us

Since the pandemic, people became more addicted to their devices than ever before. One answer I heard as to why a person dear to me watches so much youtube is "there needed to be some voices in my (empty) house". While I was impressed by the answer, I don't agree that we should all become youtube or TV addicts just to hear somebody else's voice. FYI: the person is about four years older than me, and was not around when the dinosaurs walked on Earth whatever my four year old might tell you.

When I see people on the street walking with headphones in their ears, it seems wrong. When I go out I have to make sure that my one year old does not kill himself. But even if I went out without the baby, I would still like to hear the various noises around me. Hearing makes me feel safer. When one goes out in nature, shouldn't they listen to the birds? even when there are only sealgulls and pigeons around, I like to hear the waves. I don't like unnatural sounds like those from cars, but often one has little choice. However, everyone else around has headphones and listens to some pre-registered music, while I try to listen to the music of the life around me.

Both my principles and I feel old. I use my phone to talk to people, and when I don't talk to somebody I put it down. But if we no longer listen to the life around us, can we really live life in full? It seems obvious that we'd at least be more more likely to prevent accidents if we open our eyes and our ears when we walk on the street. When I sit in the train, I look out the window. My kids still fight over the window seat in the plane or train, but few people look out the window today. They all look at their phone. Some listen to the news, some look at videos of themselves, some look at movies, some look at videos of their friends, etc. I've even seen a few people reading books on the train, but I don't see people looking out the window any more and I see very few people looking around them when they walk on the street.

Am I the only one who is crazy and does not appreciate progress? Perhaps... but I still think there is so much beauty and so many troubles around us that we no longer notice or try to fix because we forget to look around.