We don't really think about how much time we spend being consumed by our smart phones. As a society, we are addicted to staying plugged in and connected. Maybe it gives us a sense of value and comfort to have anything we could ever want to know at our fingertips.
My own mom, one of the wisest, most level-headed people I know, always tells me that social media and communication by texting is what she dislikes most about our generation. Part of me wants to brush her off for being old-fashioned and blame it on the fact that times have changed and this has all become normal ways of communicating. If you really take a second to think about it, although technology has so many great benefits, it is ultimately and slowly ruining our relationships and us as a society.
During the second semester of my junior year of high school, my mom noticed how glued to my phone I was. My grades were slipping, and I stopped engaging with my family as much during the rare occasions we would all be together, so she, being the awesome mom that she is, did a hard thing that she knew would help me in the long run. She took away my phone and my laptop and traded them in for an old dinosaur flip phone that could only make and receive phone calls. To prove her point, she pulled up my phone bills, which revealed how many text messages were being sent and received, and how much time I spent surfing on different Apps. It was a huge slap in the face, and I felt disgusted with myself. At the time, I thought my social life would be over. How could I post on Instagram? How would my friends be able to get a hold of me to invite me to things or share with me the latest gossip? What was I supposed to do when I got bored? This was probably one of the best things my mom could have ever done for me.
Since I didn't have my phone, it pushed me to truly be present with and more attentive to whoever I was with. I didn't have the option of texting someone back or pulling up Twitter or Instagram to check my feeds, and it was the most freeing thing ever. Going without my phone for three months made me realize how much time is wasted on these things and how asocial "social" media makes us. I began to notice how my friends would all be on their phones during lunch, and we wouldn't actually be engaging in real face-to-face conversations.
Since then, I still get caught up in spending too much time on my phone, but it really was one of the most eye-opening moments of my life thus far, and it has made me more conscious of being present for the people I am spending time with.
