For a long time I have thought about the ways Thailand has changed since the rise of smartphones, back when people were not constantly nose diving into their screens. When I first arrived, smartphones did not even exist. My first phone was a big clunky Nokia with a black and white screen with a retractable antenna. Then came the race to make phones smaller, with those tiny little Motorola flip phones everywhere. Nokia and Ericsson were still popular, although not quite as compact. Then the iPhone arrived, and everything changed. It took a few more years, maybe five or six, but eventually everyone had some form of smartphone. Fast forward to 2026 and it is almost impossible to go anywhere without seeing people face planted into their screens, doom scrolling every spare minute. So I started wondering how this change has actually affected everyday life in Thailand. There have definitely been some gains and some losses. These days in Thailand, when you walk down the street in the city, people are staring straight into their phones and walk directly towards you as if they are blind. If you do not move, they will walk straight into you without ever looking up. In the past, there was always the classic Thai soi strut of ambling side to side on the pavement and never choosing a lane, making it hard to get past them, but now it is different. They walk in a perfectly straight line, they just have no idea where they are going. On the plus side, far fewer Thai guys sitting around with nothing to do who feel the need to strike up long, curious and monotonous conversations with a passing foreigner. That alone might be considered progress. You also notice it in places where people used to naturally engage with what was around them. Couples now sit together at cafes and restaurants in total silence, each absorbed in their own screen like they are in separate relationships. On the backs of motorbikes, passengers no longer look around at the world flying past them. They scroll through TikTok while weaving through traffic as if the laws of physics will never punish them for not paying attention while their driver squeezes through narrow gaps. At traffic lights, half the people crossing the street at zebra crossings look like sleepwalkers, drifting forward while staring down, trusting that cars will not flatten them out of pure carelessness. Even in lifts, that old awkward silence has disappeared. Not because people have become more social, but because nobody looks at anyone at all anymore. Ten people can stand shoulder to shoulder, each fully absorbed in their own device, as if the others do not exist. And in places that used to be about actually being in the moment, like parks, temples, or markets, the experience now seems to be about filming it badly in vertical format so that it can be uploaded to the Gram and forgotten about five minutes later. So, there are upsides and downsides. On one hand, fewer random conversations and less idle chatter. On the other, a noticeable drop in basic awareness of the physical world. People might bother you less, but they are far more likely to walk straight into you while doing it. 😄
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