This is a time when phubbing is becoming a thing: You wake up and the first thing you do is grab your mobile phone. We’re so obsessed with our gadgets, we’d rather spend time with them than our friends and family.

Photographer Eric Pickersgill has developed a unique way of demonstrating how addicted to our phones we are. He took images of people who seem to be using their phones — but without the phones. It really shows just how much we are ignoring each other. He’s calling the project “REMOVED.”

The result is glassy-eyed children sat back to back with their oblivious parents, friends totally disconnected from each another, couples spooning their smartphones instead of one another. Everyone’s ignoring the view, missing the moment, letting life pass them by. Even on the biggest days of all.