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• The Walking, Talking Robots Among Us

Our phones have become appendages, and our eyes are constantly glued to the screen. And when we walk while using them, we sometimes don’t know where we’re going. Have we become the robots?

Thumbs scrolling, eyes staring

We’ve witnessed it, we’ve experienced it, we’re all guilty of it – constantly looking and using our devices anywhere and everywhere. From the buses to the bathrooms, we can’t deny that most of us spend every idle time available on our phones. Our phones are a portal to a world of entertainment and information. While our devices can be loads of fun, we ought to use them responsibly as well.

In the fifth book of The Plano Adventures, Out of Order, the citizens of Machiville are completely engrossed with their devices. Nobody talks to each other in real life, and they have to be ferried back and forth by actual mechanical robots. But really, if you think about it, the real robots are the citizens themselves who can’t seem to function without their phones! One of the citizens of Machiville started over-reacting when his Bottle-Bottle screen wouldn’t work properly, and another felt completely desolate without it. Doesn’t this sound familiar? When our phones run out of battery or if we forget to bring it out with us, we break into a frenzy and sometimes, we even panic.

The device is not your life

Our devices have brought about a wave of convenience and efficiency in our daily lives. Need information? Click! Want some entertainment? Tap tap! Everything we need is just a thumb and a scroll away. But a line needs to be drawn before we become over-dependent on our devices. It’s necessary to take a break from our phones from time to time, look up, and talk to the people around us. Or even just take a walk in the park (without your phones of course).

Out of Order tackles the issue of reducing device dependency. It spreads an important message about managing our devices responsibly before we turn into robots ourselves. If you or anyone you know enjoyed Out of Order, please vote for us for the Popular Readers Choice Awards 2019 at https://ao.popular.com.sg/readerschoice/. The voting is only open to Singaporeans and Permanent Residents of Singapore.If you would like to purchase Out of Order, or any of the other 4 books in the series, you may find them in Singapore at Kinokuniya, Times Bookstores, and at Popular. Alternatively, buy them online on Amazon or Book Depository.