The winners of National Geographic’s annual photo contest were announced a week back, and the grand prize winner in the ‘People’ category is this photograph of a packed train in Hong Kong by Brian Yen. I loved his description.

‘In the last ten years, mobile data, smartphones and social networks have forever changed our existence. Although this woman stood at the center of a jam-packed train, the warm glow from her phone told the strangers around her that she wasn’t really there. She managed to slip away from “here” for a short moment; she’s a node flickering on the social web, roaming the Earth, free as a butterfly. Our existence is no longer stuck to the physical here; we’re free to run away, and run we will.’

Via photography.nationalgeographic.com