Take a look around you. If you’re on a bus, in a crowded shopping mall, or simply walking down the street, there’s a good chance a majority of the people around you are looking down. Not at their shoes, not at the grass, but at the little devices in their hands which seem to remove them from the real world.

In recent years, the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets has created an unforeseen phenomenon, unlike anything the human race has ever experienced. Our ability to communicate with one another in the physical world has been diminished in exchange for pixelated dialogue in a virtual one. What has our world come to when parents choose to pacify a crying infant with an iPhone rather than taking time to show genuine care and attention to the screaming child? Humanity has become so reliant on technology, so much so that studies show a modern individual’s significantly decreased ability to hold a casual conversation with a stranger.

Otis Johnson, a man imprisoned for attempted murder and assault of a police officer at the age of 25, was recently released after serving his 44-year sentence. At 69 years old, Johnson’s re-entry into modern society was a challenge, seeing as though the world he left 44 years ago was very different from the one we live in today. One of Johnson’s greatest curiosities of the modern world is how everyone manages to get around without looking up from their devices. An elderly man who has been alienated from society for so long was able to notice something that most people very much in society fail to see. This proves our inability to perceive far beyond our own devices to the person sitting next to us, who evidently also finds their eyes glued to a screen.

What happened to the world where people would meet at coffee shops? Engage in casual banter over cappuccinos before parting their ways and hoping to see each other again someday soon. The world where, if you missed someone, you had to dial their house phone and speak to a family member before reaching them? We have somehow forgotten how to interact with each other in person, and the only way to change direction is by making ourselves aware of it. There is no direct way to undo the damage that has already been done, but we can take steps, as a society, to ensure that the next generations do not fall into the same trap. Grandparents today are finding it increasingly difficult to speak with their grandchildren; we must make sure that dialogue does not become completely virtual by the time our generation grows old.

The ability to recognize and correct our actions on a small scale can have incremental effects on the future, but we have to start today. Whether that means turning our phones off during dinner or engaging in conversation with a stranger on the subway, it takes a conscious effort, one which most people are not conscious of. These steps may seem small and insignificant, but immensely necessary before we too become unable to express our thoughts without the use of a compulsory emoji. Sad face.