Togetherness
Taken out of context, these scenes are ordinary and perhaps undeserving of a photo. But in succession, a greater theme rises up: we are increasingly present in two worlds. We operate two selves. And it seems that our "real" selves need our "virtual" selves more than the other way around.
The virtual world offers us an undeniably tempting package of companionship, information and fantasy. It offers to assuage our loneliness by linking us to others, to direct us when we are lost, and it promises to make us more desirable in ways we can feel good about. And it may seem that the virtual world asks for nothing in return even though it does--it demands our presence. Technology is nothing without our desire to use it.
But we are at the controls. Humans have designed the landscape, these technologies, and these well-marketed virtual domains. This is not a struggle to free ourselves from under the machine. We only need to free ourselves from the idea that time spent in the "real" means we are missing something important in the "virtual." We need to respect the offerings of real life and real interactions. It's not a nostalgic throwback to old times, it's an actual opportunity to achieve the happiness advertised to us in our virtual lives.