Have you ever tried to have a conversation with a brick wall? Neither have I, but we have all gotten pretty close to it. Talking to most young adults is essentially the same as talking to a brick wall––or should I say a wall made of plastic, glass, and stainless steel. This small, handheld wall creates a barrier between so many conversations everyday. Some people may have an iWall, or an Android wall, a Flip wall, or one of those old school Nokia walls, which could easily be mistaken for a brick wall. Nevertheless, there is so much more on the other side of that wall, and you would be surprised by how much you could learn just by removing your wall. If you have not guessed by now, the wall I am referring to is the cell phone. Now, before you read on, I ask one thing of you: if you are currently with someone while reading this on your phone or tablet, stop reading, put it down, and be with the person on the other side of that wall (but you should definitely bookmark this to read it later when you are alone!).

Now, this is not to say that cell phones and social media are not some of the coolest inventions that help us gain information instantly and keep in touch with people we may not otherwise be able to talk to. However, many of us have become social hogs. Even if we are only with one person, we are actually talking to two different people at once. Instead of using social media to keep in touch with people far away from us, it is leading us to lose touch with the people right in front of us. This is not the fault of social media itself, but we are to blame. We have ruined something so valuable and we have made it into something so destructive.

There is no worse feeling than telling a whole story to someone who is not actually listening because they are too enraptured by the glowing rectangle in their hands. You feel unworthy of that person's time. You feel as though they would rather be talking to the person on their phone. It is incredibly unfortunate to say that a deep, meaningful conversation is becoming a lost art. So much can be learned just by simply talking with your peers about anything, really. Anything. There are no limits when it comes to conversation. Yet we are so afraid of the freedom to talk about anything with the people around us that we often revert to the structured "Hi, what's up?" text to people who are not present.

So, please, do not be a social hog. This is not to say that the occasional, brief reply to a text while you are with someone is terribly rude. That is partly what social media is for, being able to get in touch with someone when there is an emergency. A social hog is someone that is having meaningless conversations with other people through their cell phone while they are spending time with other people face-to-face. Please, just choose one. And for the next time you find yourself acting like a social hog, I included the following foolproof steps to follow:

Step 1: Put that phone down, flip it, and reverse it

*cue Missy Elliot*

Step 2: Look up

Step 3: Acknowledge the person in front of you

Step 4: Converse

Step 5: