National Geographic's 2014 Photo of the Year award goes to....a picture about tech addiction: http://t.co/VzGora2d2r #signofthetimes
— carlhonore (@carlhonore) December 21, 2014Carl Honore points the way to the National Geographic web site and the photo selected as this year's grand prize winner. The caption supplied by National Geographic reads
In the last ten years, mobile data, smartphones and social networks have forever changed our existence. Although this woman stood at the center of a jam-packed train, the warm glow from her phone told the strangers around her that she wasn't really there. She managed to slip away from "here" for a short moment; she's a node flickering on the social web, roaming the Earth, free as a butterfly. Our existence is no longer stuck to the physical here; we're free to run away, and run we will.
Mashable reports that the photographer, Brian Yen, says
"I feel a certain contradiction when I look at the picture," Yen told National Geographic. "On the one hand, I feel the liberating gift of technology. On the other hand, I feel people don’t even try to be neighborly anymore, because they don’t have to."