It's a Mad World

       This video serves as a fantastic narrative of how seemily everyone in modern society is completely overtaken by their phones and social media. The video is primarily in black and white, signifying how it feels like the color has left everyone's life due to a lack of personal connection and legitimate togetherness. Let's dive into some of the more powerful pieces of symbolism in the video. 

       The video opens up with a young boy looking very lost and scared in a massive moving crowd. Every single person in the crowd does not stop to comfort the boy who is clearly lost, they are too busy on their phones. We move on to see a conveyer belt-esk line of people looking into their phones walking straight into a manhole. This clearly symbolizes that people are failing to see the pitfalls of constantly being on their phones and walk straight into them. We then see police brutaly beating a man surrounded by a crowd of people, but instead of stepping in, everyone simply records the event. We see people at dinner on their phones, taking selfies in front of burning buildings, and the boy being able to get anyone's attention. Each one of these further cements the idea that everyone is completely locked into their phones and their online lives, and refuse to see the real world. 

      For me, the two most powerful pieces of symbolism is the image of people inside phones behind bars, and the shot of a woman who is clearly sad and living in poor conditions, but through the phone, she appears happy and in a nice place. I think that is is very true that people are, in a sense, imprisoned by their phones and devices. What was the most striking to me, however, is the concept of life only looking good for some through a lense. I think we see so much on social media of people who seemingly have it so great, and we idolize that. We want to be that and live that life. We fail to see, however, that it is a facade. People often never have it as good as it seems online, and most of the time, have it far worse. 

      I feel that this video is a very powerful and disturbingly accurate depiction of modern society. Everyone is so caught up in what is going on online that we fail to see what is right in front of us. The video leaves us with a shot of people on their phones walking off a cliff. This serves equal parts as a prediction and a warning, if we do not learn to see life as it is right in front of us, we are all doomed.