Now I’m a fan of a good hat.

I personally own a bowler. I’m a fan of people being creative with their headgear, as long as it doesn’t block my view at the movies. But this hat I saw, as I crossed the road in a sea of unfamiliar faces, this hat takes the cake. It was an old straw hat, something you’d find in your dad’s garage or your mum’s garage sale. Nothing too fancy. No, on it’s own this hat was mundane, invisible. But this man knew how to accessorise, because upon that hat sat a homemade piece; a handwritten slogan in regular pen on regular paper: “iPhones Suck!”. I smiled when I read it, and smiled at this hat wizard. I love seeing blatant expressions of contempt for society.

As soon as I read it though, I began to look around me, the sea of unfamiliar faces, was in fact a sea of unfamiliar faces glued to phones. It was almost laughable. Necks craned over Facebook profiles, and squinted eyes on Kanye West twitter wisdom. Honestly, I might’ve known every single face in that crowd, but I’ll never know because they weren’t looking at me, they were looking at their phones.

Now I’m the first one to groan when adults get on TV and say stupid things about how this generation is too obsessed with technology and wants us to go outside and play hopscotch or make mud pies or sell drugs or whatever our parents did when they were young. I love the internet and I love my phone, but being apart of this tech obsessed generation blinds my ability to actually see how prominent it is.

For a moment this man with his marvellous hat gave me a perspective in which I was removed from the others around me and was able to observe. It was rare and it was interesting. I enjoy the time I spend living in my phone, but I also really like the life outside it too, I just hope people can balance both so I can enjoy it with them.