In this generation, we are attached to our cell phones. Looking down the hallway at school you'll see a phone in almost everyone's pocket. If not there, it's probably already in their hand.

Trust me, phones are great and all, but do we rely on them too much? I can tell you now, as I'm writing this article, my phone is less than three inches from my hand. Is this need for technology at our fingertips helping or hurting our ability to learn?

Every day, I come to school and I triple-check my phone is fully charged and I double check that my charger is in my purse, I even have a portable charger in case I don't have an outlet. During all my classes I see lots of people spending an alarming amount of time on their phones. Listening to music during class, when the teacher isn't talking that's totally fine. I do it all the time, because it helps me concentrate. But much too often, I see my peers listening to music over the teachers or just being lost in it and focusing completely on the music rather than the school.

There are other awesome things our phones can do too, I have a scientific calculator, access to all of my grades, I can see announcements and homework from anywhere with a connection. I can practice learning languages, contact my teachers, collaborate on group projects, and look up words or concepts that I don't understand. All of those things are amazing, but I will be the first to admit using those apps are not always what I'm actually doing.

Is social media really imperative in school? Sometimes when I'm bored, I'll pull up Instagram and through my feed, or Snapchat to keep my streaks up, or Facebook, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Twitter or even Messenger/Messages. It all seems so important, how many likes you get, who is so bored they keep posting selfies describing it to everyone, how many people shared the link you posted, the top stories to be read, looking for my formal dress, making plans for Friday night.

All of that is totally crucial right? Um, no. Whether it's replying to the group chat under the table or just straight up checking Instagram, because the teacher doesn't take note of it anyways, all of these things add up to spending a lot of time on my phone and not present in class.

After thinking about all of the time we really spend on our phones instead of learning it's actually a little scary. It adds up to maybe over an hour, maybe more. That means if I am in class for less than 6 hours, and I am spending about an hour not even paying attention, then what am I missing? If the teachers didn't have to take phones away or continuously repeat themselves, wouldn't we learn so much more? We are at school and learning for a reason. We need to know this stuff, but we spend so much time doing other things that are important. If we can't set them down for 45 minutes during a class, then how will we put them away when we have job?

Now I know that not everyone has this problem with technology, but we need to realize as a generation that it's OK to look up from the screen and let go of the constant updates for a few minutes and to just live and learn. I'm not saying turn it off for a couple weeks, but we should all try and be more present. As hard as it may be.