When is the last time you used your phone? Have you recently sent a text, checked the time, perhaps read an article on Odyssey? I know personally, I always have my phone on me and I feel anxious when I can’t find it. It has become a crutch for me and many others to avoid eye contact, have difficult conversations, or even avoid socializing altogether. But then I think about how scary and sad it is that I, like many others, have lost the ability to connect with people to a degree. I’m constantly connected on my phone, but in person I find myself uncomfortable when there’s a pause in the conversation or I don’t know what to say. If I was texting, I would just simply take time to think about my response without worry, but in person the pauses are long and uncomfortable. How did people do it before technology?

Then, I started thinking about it and I realized that we, as a society, are so obsessed with staying connected that we’re not really connected at all. People today have constant nostalgia for the '90s and '50s (at least that’s what I hear about most), and I used to think that people think it was a “simpler time.” In reality I think it was simpler because people knew how to just be. They could just walk outside and appreciate what was around them instead of looking it up online. They could just sit with friends in silence without worry that it’s getting “awkward.” People called each other on the phone and talked to each other without letting a machine send a voiceless message and that was considered high tech. Kids played outside with each other and used their imaginations to be princesses or superheroes. Teenagers hung out together in person after school. People knew how to have fun with anything such as sticks and rocks or even a piece of string — Cat’s Cradle anyone? I remember jump roping with friends and riding our bikes and scooters to Dunkin Donuts on a hot day to get a refreshing coolata or taking a drive with my parents to get ice cream. Today I don’t see people together. I see them alone, with their contacts on their phone to keep them company. Look around you. How many people do you see on a cell phone? Or rather, how many people do you see without one in their hands right now? How many people do you see interacting with another person?

In our struggle to stay connected with each other, we’ve created a disconnect. We’re losing the ability to connect on a personal level and it’s scary. I look around and see children who can’t be older than eight with a smartphone. They’re learning to connect through technology not through actual personal connections. If this pattern persists, how long will it be before there’s no connection at all? I don’t know about anyone else but I’d rather not be friends with a piece of metal than with an actual person. That’s why, next time I find myself reaching for my phone I might consider putting it down and talking to the person beside me. Maybe if more people do that, we can learn to connect in a disconnected world.