This week while browsing the internet, I found a very interesting picture. A photographer decided to follow a family and take pictures of them during different parts of their family life; i.e dinner, watching tv, etc. The photos were completely normal, except for one thing: the family's phones were made invisible.
Now normally, this would simply mean that somewhere on the counter or in a bedroom is an invisible phone, but this was not the case. During dinner you could see the kids looking down at their laps holding something that wasn't there. At the end of dinner you could see all four people in the family not looking at each other, but instead at the invisible phone between their hands at table height. When I saw this line up of pictures it made a serious impact on me. It made me ask myself how much of our lives are we missing out on because of our cell phones.
Please don't think that I am acting high and mighty, because that simply isn't the case. I'm just as big of an addict as any of you are, I just don't have a problem with admitting my faults and talking about them anymore. I am addicted to my smartphone, and blatantly put, I am not sure I could go a day without it. While looking through social media and different games on your iPhone when you are bored isn't a problem, constantly re-checking it during dinner and family events is.
If you go to a concert, I urge you to go to the back, find some kind of elevation, and then look and see how many people are taking videos or a Snapchat of the concert. We have gotten to the point as a society where we would rather watch an event through a small screen, instead of taking every last moment in with our own lenses located in our eyes.
Smartphones have caused us as a society to feel dependent on being connected. We feel a constant itch to always know what is going on, why else would we constantly check our text messages, social media and emails? Because what if something happened to somebody we kind of know and we didn't know of it as soon as they posted about it on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram? OMG.
I will never deny the fact that smartphones are one of the most incredible inventions of the 21st century. But the fact of the matter is, these pieces of technology have taken over our lives. Most of us cannot go more than 15 minutes without refreshing our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds. As soon as the phone buzzes, we rush to text back whoever just messaged us. Regardless of what is going on around us, we would never just ignore being connected.
Life is very short. There is no recharging life. If you miss all of the good times because of your phone, I'm positive that you will regret it. Maybe it is time that we take a break from all of the technology that has taken over our lives. Go an hour or two with your phone turned off and put away. Eat a nice family dinner without texting or checking social media. Go out and enjoy something and have fun without taking Snapchats of it or pictures on your phone. Soak in life without having to filter it through your iPhone lens first. Life is too short to miss any part of it. Don't let your phone steal precious minutes away from you.
