As a 19-year-old, I find it extremely hard to go longer than five minutes without looking at my smartphone. Without it I feel lost, alone and, most importantly, uninformed.

I am addicted to my phone. What exactly is it that compels me to unlock my phone nine seconds after putting it in my pocket?

As the weeks pass and my kitchen counter fills with copy after copy of Sports Illustrated, my mother asks me why I rarely read the very magazine I used to adore so much. The answer is simple: I already know what's in the magazine. Whatever the story may be, I most likely found out about it within a few hours of it occurring, if not by the next day. I have taken it in, discussed it with friends, and I am ready for something more recent.     

This all speaks to my own, and our nation’s, growing obsession with new information. There is no greater feeling than learning something new and exciting and our smartphones enable us to do this 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Every single time you scroll down on your iPhone to refresh your Twitter feed, new information released just seconds prior is at your fingertips. This is why it is so incredibly difficult to stay away from our phones.                

Old information, even if it was just released an hour ago, takes a back seat to the wonders that might lie ahead in the mysterious world we call "the Internet." Sure, Kim Kardashian may have announced a few hours ago that she was launching a new perfume line. But, wait! What if her next Instagram announces another pregnancy? The possibilities when refreshing your feed are absolutely infinite and this entices us like nothing else on this earth.                

Up until a few years ago, Sports Illustrated was one of my main sources of information. The articles I would read had what I considered new and relevant news that I found enjoyable to read. After having a smartphone and social media at my fingertips for the past few years, I can barely finish reading the cover page without wanting to check my phone.

With our exposure to this rapid relaying of information from the press to the people, our society has become obsessed with knowing what is going on in the world every second of the day. The feeling that new information is being spewed out into the open and you aren’t able to access it at that very moment is very difficult to cope with. The fear of missing out gets too high and we unlock our phones to surf the web.