A reflective piece on modern technology, particularly phone addiction and AI, and how they can impact human relationships and genuine connection.

The title sets the tone, Separated but together, with a subtle paradox:

People can be physically near (or digitally “connected”) but emotionally or socially distant.

This question being at the heart of the poem:

Is our dependence on phones and AI leading us away from authentic living?

Is the devil’s trick, a seductive but destructive modern version of temptation?

To separate family friends and lovers in real-time, with an addiction to AI in various forms?

Do you think technology, especially phones and AI, creates distance even when people are together?

Or have you felt a sense of isolation, surveillance, or emotional disconnection, when you're with someone or in a group?

Do you think Phone Addiction to be a subtle, seductive tool that was created, for amongst other things, to erode intimacy and presence, as powerfully as a weapon?

Title.
Separated but together.

(A lone voice whispers)

I sometimes wonder in silence, for if I say what I think aloud

It will turn into another long AI conversation with something nameless, which now lives high up, in some clouds

But here goes for the curious, who is eager to know

Is phone addiction one of the devil's greatest ever tricks

To separate family friends and lovers in real-time

With an addiction to AI

While holding the death of real engagement, like a Heckler & Koch hk416

(C)
Copyright John Duffy