Take a moment to consider the amount of time in your day that is spent starring at a 5 inch LCD screen. You are doing it right now (since it's because you're reading my article it's okay). On average, Americans spend around 4.7 hours a day on their phone, which equals spending 23 days a year that you wasted in a relationship between you and your phone. IT REALLY IS NOT OKAY. While you stare down at your phone texting, reloading Instagram and Snapchat, or pointlessly playing around, you are missing the world that is living around you.

YOU ARE being incredibly RUDE! It is not fun to hangout with you while you're taking endless pictures of yourself and staring at conversations you are having with other people. I am here sitting next to you, yet you are not even acknowledging my presence in any shape or form. It truly makes the person outside the screen feel awkward, not valuable enough to have your time, and just plain stupid. I'm not saying if you check your phone I'll hate you or if you take a couple snaps I'll be annoyed, but it is such a waste to use our limited face to face time together to not even be communicating. So often when I am with my friends we are all just sitting in the same room playing on our phones. We barely even talk anymore. The most valuable thing in this life is having the presence of others. The cell phone that is always attached to you is quickly ruining that. If you want to be with me, then be with me; if you will be on your phone the whole entire time, then I'm going home.

When you are constantly on your phone it actually becomes an addiction. You can't leave a room let alone the house without your phone in your hand. Everything you do must be shared with people on social media. And then, your mind is completely consumed about how many likes your picture is getting and who liked it and if you should've used a different filter. You also spend so much time obsessing over what other people are doing, reloading apps every 6 seconds to see if they have updated their life. In reality, you aren't even taking the time to live in the moment you are just trying so hard to document the moment. You are missing the beautiful world around you. LOOK UP, LIVE OUTSIDE YOUR SCREEN, PLEASE PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN.