Today, technology is man's best friend. If you were to walk down the street on a normal afternoon, I guarantee that a majority of people are looking down at their cell phones. Same goes in restaurants. If you walk through a restaurant, chances are you'll see couples on dates who aren't even looking at each other, kids ignoring their parents, teens around a table all staring at small screens. While technology is an important asset to modern lives, our generation now struggles with putting our mobile devices down for even five minutes to have a conversation with someone.
There is a fine line between enjoying our technology and being obsessed with it.
Now, I'm 100% guilty of this myself. I keep my phone on silent a majority of the time so I'm constantly checking it, seeing if that cute boy is texting me or if my mom has anything interesting to say. While I was with a friend the other day, he said, "I don't like using my phone while I'm hanging out with people, it's rude". I've been thinking about that, because I do use my phone when others are around. I'll text someone about plans or scroll through my Facebook feed while with my family or a friend. Because I've been away at school, I've realized how valuable my time is with my family and my friends whom I don't see very often. Why should I ruin that by looking through the twitter feed that will still be there in two hours? We need to focus on the humans that are actually in our presence, not the latest celebrity scandal or which sports team is winning.
It's not healthy to constantly be looking at our phones, involving ourselves in other people's lives. Sometimes for our own mental health and sanity it's best to just take time away from our electronics and focus on ourselves and our own lives. I've seen many situations where young teenage girls are bullied online and become consumed by their problems, feeling that their lives are over. It's hard for them to understand that all they have to do is just turn it off. Maybe if they spent more time focusing on real relationships, they wouldn't feel that their lives are just online.
I challenge you to spend some time during your week, even if it's just an hour, and unplug from your devices. Take a walk, cook some good food, but just spend time with yourself or someone you love and relax. You'd be surprised about how refreshing it can be not worrying about what's going on in the internet world.
