The Market Is Full, But the People Are Missing

Sometimes I walk through the market and realise how much has quietly changed. There was a time when vendors greeted us with smiles, called our names, and started conversations even before selling anything. We knew their voices, their faces, their stories. Buying vegetables felt human, not transactional. But now, most of them sit in silence, eyes fixed on their phones, lost in another world. When I ask for something, they look up suddenly, almost surprised that someone is talking to them in real life. No greeting, no excitement  just a quick response and back to the screen. The market is still crowded, but the connections are gone. I am not against phones, but somewhere in this habit of scrolling, we are slowly forgetting how to live outside the screen. Before, the market was alive. Today, it feels like everyone is present, but nobody is really there. Maybe the world didn’t change… maybe we just stopped looking at each other.

If screens keep stealing our attention, soon we will remember people only when we lose them.