I will not tell you how I got to this planet or from which time line I jumped off of to get here, but somehow I am stuck on the planet earth in a time they call 2023 AD. It is a time period many still call the "modern times" although I beg to differ.

There are some fun things about living on this planet, but all of these enjoyable pleasures come with a heavy cost to earth's inhabitants. The automobile was once the horseless carriage. Some might call it an upgrade, but no one in these "modern times" can feed their car oats or eat their car if they are starving.

Instead these automobiles thrive on the fossils of extinct animals, and when they are old, they are thrown in a junk pile to rust. Did I forget to mention that these automobiles are one of the leading causes of death in the "modern" world?

Concrete Boxes

Many earthlings have adapted to living in harmony with the earth in nests and caves and dwellings underground, but one species insists on filling the planet with flimsy structures as high as mountains. Water is pumped up the structures and power is sucked up through poorly insulated wires and gas pipes. At best these building structures lay half abandoned while owners and investors try to keep the "real estate" prices bubbling. In the worst case scenario these buildings become targets of other humans and are destroyed for reasons I cannot understand.

Those who "live" in these structures suffer from a sleep disorder in which their body can no longer distinguish between night and day. They call this insomnia. Each day they travel in automobiles from their flimsy concrete boxes to another concrete box to get what they call "stress" from 9-5 Monday through Friday.

Then on the weekend the automobiles line up on what are called "highways" sometimes but mostly "parking lots" to get out of their concrete box to a "nice' place and "enjoy nature".

I can never really understand why this one species on earth insists on having "stress" everyday while other species seem to be pretty content just to live and sing and enjoy the richness of earth.

Why would any species intentionally seek out "stress"?

The inventions of the human beings will always be a mystery to me.

I don't think I will ever be able to understand their logic. It seems that almost every one of their inventions turn against them. Among the inventions of the human race there is one that annoys me most and it is not the automobile.

As a visitor I would like to engage in conversation and human interactions, but it seems that humans prefer machine assisted interactions. This has constantly perplexed me. Mostly it annoys me that I came to this planet light years away and skipped out of my own time line to be with humans, but can find no true human interaction.

I even performed the mating ritual of the humans they call marriage and engaged with a human spouse. After twenty earth years, the result of our relationship is two children and 8 million text messages. Often times I feel it is easier to communicate with my spouse through text even while she is still in the same room.

It's not that humans don't care about each other. If they didn't care then they wouldn't be constantly looking at their cell phone. They are thirsty for interaction more and more. They have created networks of short interactions on the cell phone and even found value in giving likes. Not only do they seek the satisfaction of these interactions, but they are also addicted to the colors and lights of the screen.

Human beings are aware of the destruction caused by the cell phone, but cannot stop using it even for a moment.

^{(The humanlike figure in this picture was created with the help of AI.)}

There are important times in human culture like the time of birth, graduation, marriage and death. Humans hire photographers to document these important occasions, but in the "modern" world humans cannot resist the temptation to take out their cell phone and record the event.

Okay, I am a hypocrite. I have lived with the humans long enough to become like them. I am quick to take out my cell phone and take a picture. A few of those pictures are included in the article I am writing here. I teach students in a human elementary school and tell them to keep their phones off, but I use my phone during break time to check messages.

I desire one day to provide "good" content for people to check on their cell phones that distracts them from the reality of their everyday "stress". The invention of the cell phone has become an annoyance, but at the same time very necessary to modern life. It would seem strange for one to go without a cell phone for one day.

The human becomes easily assimilated to the usage of the cell phone so that once the cell phone is left behind in the habitat for a day, or even if a cell phone is replaced with a new one, then the human faces symptoms of withdrawal. This I have also experienced.

The most annoying thing about the cell phone is not watching other people use it everywhere all the time creating a barrier in human relationships. The most annoying part of the cell phone is watching myself turn to the cell phone to communicate when real face to face human interaction is available.

As a space and time traveler I have observed the rise and fall of civilizations.

Human beings have a beautiful affiliation toward love and compassion and also a weakness of becoming easily distracted. These distractions blinded humans in the past from great atrocities. But Just because people were distracted doesn't mean that these things didn't happen. Human beings need to be careful not to miss the big picture while they are distracted indirectly by social media and directly by their own cell phones.

_{All the pictures here were taken with my camera with the exception of the gif found on the the PeakD front end and part of one picture enhanced with AI. The story has in no way been enhanced with AI. The writing is original writing based on a fictional character who has taken some time to study modern society and haws found a pet peeve. In many ways his opinions do reflect my own. The writing topic here came from weekend-engagement writing topic #148. Thanks to @galenkp and the weekend experiences community for giving me something fun to write about.^^}