Technology: Liberator or Jailer?

Many people would argue that technology has empowered us and given us a sense of freedom the likes we have never experienced. It's true that our mobile internet devices have allowed us to break free from the proverbial shackles of home internet service, giving us the ability to roam the virtual world while we roam the physical world...

...but did we just trade in an old pair of shackles for some fancy new ones?

Artwork by Felipe Luchi

Felipe Luchi has created some stunningly beautiful and thought-provoking images of an iPhone and a computer mouse re-imagined as prisons and jails. The attention to detail on these images is superb, but what is most striking, in this author's viewpoint, is how indicative these symbols have become of our daily lives, especially the re-imagined iPhone.

These images beg the question: are we truly free, or have we become inmates in a cruel twist of fate to a technological jailer and we're paying our dues to it 24 months at a time? (Or month to month if you're on a prepaid plan?)

H/T +Dede Craig King via Twisted Sifter. Original artwork can be viewed on Felipe Luchi's website here. (Bonus picture of a re-imagined wristwatch on the artist's website!)