Mobile phones are changing social behaviour around the globe. Catapulted by developments in mass communications and consumerism, the tools are reshaping us – mentally and physically. 

The changes are accompanied by many contradictions. While connectivity is available in every way thinkable, individuality and isolation is growing. And while information is freer and vast, we seem to be more than ever locked inside our own information bubble. Just look around you: couples stopped talking, tourists don’t look at the landscape anymore, groups of friends – while being in the same place – end up interacting through their black mirrors. 

In this photo series, I examine men and women with their mobile phones in technology obsessed Hong Kong and other Asian mega-cities. The crime-rate here is one of the lowest in the whole world, and using gadgets in public is not a risk (compared to my native Brazil), and social behaviour has been reshaped dramatically. The full side effects of our relentless pursuit for connectivity and the real scale of our mental and physical changes are still unknown in the year 2019.

But every single time someone bows in a crowded urban space, halting their step… they shut out the possibility of interacting with someone around them. Mobile phones have become the central object of people’s daily activities.