We all live in a world where cellphones seem to be taking over our lives. We walk down the street looking at our phones, we text in class, we search for songs when we go on runs, tweet while walking (and almost tripping) down the stairs, and I'm sure that there is always that one adult who says, "Are you going to spend your whole life on your phone and forget to live your life?"
Yeah, Karen. That's exactly my plan.
Sure, we may spend a lot of our time using our cellphones, but that doesn't exactly mean that we are forgetting to live our lives. Like, girl, if you had cellphones when you were growing up, I'm sure you'd be blowing up your Snapchat story, too...
It is clear that cellphones have evolved from their original forms of contact (calling and texts), into emailing and using popular social media outlets and apps like FaceTime, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr,etc. (in addition to the primary forms of contact). And sure, it is easy to say that we are all too involved with, as many adults say, "seeking validation from people we don't even know."
However, the the truth of the matter is: you don't always know why everyone is always on their phones. For those of you who think you know what we are doing all the time -- you're about to be denied the privilege of our interactions.
I mean, just look at what happened to Jennifer Lawrence when she assumed she knew why someone was using their phone during an interview at the Golden Globes.
It is easy to assume if you see someone always on their phones, that they are doing something superficial. However, in reality, there are a whole list of other things that we are doing when we are on our cellphones.
1. We are avoiding an awkward situation.
2. We are simply having a bad day.
Sometimes we are forced to be out in the world (going to school, work, meetings, etc.) and we "literally just can't."
3. Maybe we are sending in tips to "Gossip Girl"?
4. We may have just received really terrible news.
And now the other person can no longer talk on the phone, so now we have to result to texting them for even longer than a spoken conversation would have taken, and we are really frustrated.
5. It's possible that we don't even want to be on our phones, but we have to be because we are in trouble for something we probably didn't even do!
I mean, we probably did do it, but still.
6. We forgot to finish writing a paper for class, left our computer on our bed and have exactly 15 minutes before class to finish writing it on our phones!
Thank God for modern technology!
7. We are supporting our boss through a rough time.
How else are you going to get that raise?
8. Actually, our phone glitched in the middle of sending an email to work and now we are trying to figure out how to recover it.
9. We are creating art.
Sure, photo apps such as Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, VSCO cam etc., may seem superficial, but there is no mistake that these sites often are used to capture and showcase beautiful photography.
10. We use our phones to put a face to a name.
Who is Demetrius Weldon? One second, I'll look him up on Facebook!
11. Everyone else is on their phone most likely doing something relevantly important...so now what?
12. OK, so you're right. We aren't always doing something important.
But that doesn't mean that we should be forced to not document it for laughs later!
It is definitely important to live our lives in the present and avoid our phones from dictating us. However, mostly everyone has a phone and is using it for different reasons, therefore, it isn't fair to judge certain generations for being so connected.
You have to admit, it is nice to not rely on a carrier pigeon to deliver messages for us. If people had access to this kind of technology years ago, they'd totally have ditched the pigeon and checked their read receipts in iMessage, too.
Sure, sometimes the situation may look awkward when we are all on our phones...but you can never accurately extract truth from mere perceptions.
