Bette Midler asked, 'What's wrong with this picture?' The answer was universal: nothing

Bette Midler asked, 'What's wrong with this picture?' The answer was universal: nothing

...
But people cared more that Midler shamed young people in a museum for appearing less than riveted by a 250-year-old painting of a nude woman.

"Nothing is wrong with this picture since we don't know what the backstory is," author Katrina Ray-Saulis countered. "They could be contacting their parents after spending hours there. They could be reading about the history of the art on the museum's website. We assume too much if we're upset by this."

Her comment mirrored a wave of reaction that met Midler's initial tweet.
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... https://www.cnn.com/style/article/bette-midler-museum-tweet-trnd/index.html

It's true, we don't know the context of the image. It got me to thinking: What is wrong with this picture is that people are hunched over little touch-screen devices to do the sorts of things that people normally do on such devices. It's something I personally would not opt to do, even if I weren't concerned about the loss of privacy inherent to using smartphones, because I don't want to stare at a small screen to look up information or communicate with someone. Not at home and not on the go. When I'm out, I like not being tethered to a device. I like to experience the world around me, even if it means seeing a ton of other people staring into little screens these days. Sad for them, I figure. They are unwilling to get out and live life the way past generations did. They choose to live in their little digital realm everywhere they go.

 

they're practicing to become 'batteries' to save the planet

 

At least it wasn’t a naked picture of Bette Midler. That would be a form of child abuse.

 

I agree with Bette that some people are tethered to their phones and missing the world around them, but she could have said it in a nicer way.

I don't know too many kids/teens that enjoy going to museums so I wouldn't expect an abundance of appreciation for the experience.

In the name of technological advancements, society has created a generation of people with almost no social skills, very limited attention spans and what borders on apathy toward anything outside their (small) sphere of interests.