It was just as much of a wake up call to write this article as it will be for you to read it, BUT I think we can all agree that the majority of us (myself included) spend way too much time on our phones. Honestly, I didn’t even realize how much of a habit checking my phone was becoming until recently. In fact, it wasn't until I was (regretfully) put in a group message with too many (5) people that I realized just how often I'm on my phone.

I’m going to need you to bear with me through this next memory– it’ll be tough but we’ll get through it. Do you remember a time when flip phones existed and not every device had a touch screen? In other words, do you remember when phones were just…..wait for it……..phones? You couldn’t read everyone’s thoughts on Twitter or double-tap anyone’s Instagram posts. Rough subject, I know, but for me it’s almost hard to imagine a time when I didn’t have my cell phone glued to my hand. Now, if my iPhone isn’t in plain sight, I start to sweat. Actually, I have a minor panic attack if it’s missing. How will I get in touch with anyone? How will I catch up with my group message if I’m absent for too long? When is the next time I can scroll through Instagram? All very pressing issues when you’re without your phone but just think- there was a time when cell phones didn’t even exist. There was a time that when you walked out of your house, got in your car and drove away, with no way of reaching anyone. I’m getting anxiety just thinking about that level of freedom.

Cell phones are great things, don’t get me wrong. But there are so many down sides to having a computer at your fingertips. For example, is it just me or do you also feel like social skills are being compromised because of this? If your answer is no, try to remember a time when you were hanging out with your friends and there wasn’t at least one point when they were all on their phones. I can’t tell you how often I’ll be sitting at a friend’s house and not one person in the room is talking. Instead, we’re scrolling through social media. It’s almost like an addiction. We need our phones on us at all times or it’s like we don’t know what to do with ourselves. I can’t help but think that if I didn’t have a phone, I’d need to take up some sort of hobby to make up for all the time that I glance down at a screen.

Not only am I emotionally attached to this handheld computer, but I’ve also gotten way less patient because of it. Consider the time it takes to send an iMessage and get a reply. Pretty instantly, right? I think I’ve gotten so used to that, I’ve been finding myself much less willing to wait any amount of time for anything. If you think about it, everything we need is at our fingertips. We don’t really wait for anything, do we? I’ve gotten so accustomed to it with my phone, that if I have to wait for anything for more than five minutes, I usually lose interest. Am I the only one who feels like this, or is there anyone else who feels as though their patience has dwindled down to nothing since purchasing an iPhone?

One last note to add is the level of stress that group messages cause me. To any of my friends reading this (if any of my friends read these), I love you, really I do. But I put my phone down for TEN MINUTES and come back to 263 messages. Now I have to make a decision- do I scroll all the way back to catch up on what I missed (the likely option because I have a serious case of FOMO) or do I give up on playing catch up and just jump in the conversation. Most of the time it doesn't matter because by the time I type my message, everyone's already talking about something else. Alright, my rant is over.

At the end of the day, I do 100% think that iPhones are super handy tools that are helpful in a lot of ways (the reminder app saves my life on a daily basis). But living through the flip phone era and the iPhone era, it’s amazing to see the difference in communication. Text messages are sent in paragraphs compared to the few words that were sent in the past. E-mailing has gotten very popular in the business world and even job applications are submitted online most of the time. I’m sure this isn’t anything new but we are living so much more digitally than we used to, I’m just not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing yet.