Are Smartphones Responsible For the Death of Conversation?

Our phones have a lot of uses these days. While they were once merely a means of communication, they are now a great way to fill time or catch up on current events as well as the perfect crutch in an awkward situation. Need to fill an unbearably long silence or look like you're doing something while alone at a party? Just whip out an iPhone. But all of these new uses seem to defeat the original purpose of the device. With a smartphone glued to the palm of our hand, can we still maintain any meaningful communication face-to-face?

A new photo series entitled 'The Death of Conversation' suggests not. Picturing friends, couples and dinner dates entranced with the screens of their phones but ignoring each other, these works by London photographer Babycakes Romero are all too familiar. It's something you see everyday. Don't feel too embarrassed. We're all guilty of it.

This is what inspired the photographer to create the series. "I saw that smartphones were becoming a barrier to communication in person," he told Buzzfeed. "I saw how people used it as a social prop to hide their awkwardness, to fill the silence, but as I continued to observe and document this modern phenomenon I felt that the devices were actually causing the awkwardness and the silence."