Sure, you can text and tweet, but do you actually talk to the people sitting right next to you?
All too often, I see an entire family on their phones at dinner time. What happened to quality meals with laughter and endless conversation?
Well, technology happened.
As young adults, it is our job to step up and be role models for younger kids. What are we teaching them if we are sucked into our phone all the time?
It may not seem like a big deal now, but 20 years from now, I'm sure we will see the effects, and it is not going to be pretty. Choose to value the time we spend with people more than we value our phones.
Nowadays, when we go grab a bite to eat with a friend, our phones come along, too.
More often than not, you see parents giving their children iPads or iPhones to play on rather than toys or books. I don't know about you, but that scares me. We are teaching children from such a young age that it is OK to stare into a phone and play games or watch shows for hours on end.
We should be setting the example for everyone to be fully engaged in what is going on in real life, not virtual life.
I get it, I'm guilty of it, too, but it's time for us to put an end to wasting time on our phones.
Some of us spend more time judging someone's profile online than communicating with them face to face. Facebook was created to be able to stay in touch with people and see what they are up to, it was not intended as something to check at the dinner table.
Most of us are guilty of overusing our phones, but that does not, by any means, make it OK.
As a society, we are teaching each other that it is OK to ignore people.
We are teaching others that whatever is on our phone is more important than what is going on with the person right next to you. Put your phone down and ask them about their day.
If you take nothing else, please just put your phone down when someone is talking to you. I challenge you to unplug from social media and spend time with the ones you love the most (without any distraction from electronics).
It's amazing to me that like a camera lens, our eyes have the ability to focus on anything we choose. That being said, we can choose to focus on what is right close up in front of our face (a phone), or we can choose to focus on the bigger picture, our family or even beautiful scenery.
We, as a society, are missing out on so much by having our eyes locked on our phones. Look up.
Unplug from the virtual world to experience what is happening in real life.
It'll be OK, I promise, just set your phone down.
