I am not someone who posts memes. But this one was too good to let go because I think it hit the nail on the head.
Maybe because I see so many people around me (not my husband, he doesn't even have a smartphone), staring at their phone with no attention to their surroundings.
Even at parties, during dinner, on the street, in the classroom (when pupils have a chance) or for instance in parliament, people are together but really they are alone.
On Dutch television, there was a documentary about China on Sunday evening. It was said that Chinese young people in Beijing choose to talk to their peers on their phones instead of in real life. I think not only in China but also in many many other countries. It's really a pity, but you know I grew up in the sixties and that was a very different time, so maybe I am just getting old!
But this negative approach was not the intention of the original three monkeys.
I think that the three Monkees are widely known. "Horen, zien en zwijgen" we say in Dutch. "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". So originally the three monkeys are meant to give a life lesson. In other words, the wise man is prudent in what he looks at, in what he listens to, and in what he says. He considers the consequences, makes sensible decisions and if he does not know what to do, he asks.
The source that popularized the three monkeys is a 17th-century carving over a door of the famous Tōshō-gū shrine in Nikkō, Japan. The carvings at Toshogu Shrine were carved by Hidari Jingoro, and believed to have incorporated Confucius’s Code of Conduct.
In Chinese, a similar phrase exists in the late Analects of Confucius from 2nd to 4th century B.C.: "Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety" (非禮勿視，非禮勿聽，非禮勿言，非禮勿動).[9] It may be that this phrase was shortened and simplified after it was brought into Japan.
The saying in Japanese is mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru (見ざる, 聞かざる, 言わざる) "see not, hear not, speak not",
Mizaru: U+1F648 🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL MONKEY
Kikazaru: U+1F649 🙉 HEAR-NO-EVIL MONKEY
Iwazaru: U+1F64A 🙊 SPEAK-NO-EVIL MONKEY
In the Western world both the proverb and the image are often used to refer to a lack of moral responsibility on the part of people who refuse to acknowledge impropriety, looking the other way or feigning ignorance.
Source for the information about China and Japan: Wikipedia
Now, on this picture, there is a fourth monkey. There is a monkey with a phone. He doesn't hear doesn't see and doesn't speak but he is immersed in his phone.
This image of the four monkeys is even more appealing in Dutch because of the Whatsapp / Whatsaap. Monkey in Dutch means: 'aap'.
As I said in the beginning of this story. There are so many people who behave like the fourth monkey. Please don't be one of them. Enjoy meeting other people and talk in 'real life' with them instead of only through WhatsApp or even Steemit!!
Have a nice day!
Clio