You know how when you're hanging out with your friends and all they want to do is sit on their phone? Or when you walk into a crowded room of students, or even to a restaurant, and everyone is with their family or significant other, but they are just texting away or posting about their day? Yeah, me too. I am guilty of this, and I know a lot of you are too. The thing is, though, we don't realize how much we miss, whether it's a conversation piece we missed a part of or a funny thing your friend did. We don't realize how many memories or good times we miss out on because we are too concerned with sharing them with other people instead of enjoying the moment.
Start to think back on the times you had when you were younger, before cellphones or computers were a thing, and how basically every child born comes out of the womb with one. Things were a lot more fun, am I right? I can't speak for you or anyone else, but I know that when I didn't have the world at my fingertips, I laughed more and spent a lot more time with my friends and family. I think the use of technology has gotten in the way of how we view things and how we spend our time. Going out with friends on the weekends turned into Netflix and chilling. Sleepovers have turned into text overs. "Being too busy" is just not wanting to leave your house because, hey, you can talk to everyone you need to at the push of a button.
Dating has become a thing of the past. Walking up to someone you are interested in has become sending a message to them over Facebook based off how they look in their pictures and the posts they make on social media. Going out for a hike and enjoying a sunset has turned into looking up pictures and posting them as our backgrounds instead of connecting with nature. Arguments are texts and miscommunications and making things worse. Breaks ups no longer break our hearts, because Mr. Right is the next person on our friends list. Watching your kids grow up and taking them outside to play has been corrupted with sitting them in front of the television and texting on your phone all day, and missing their moments of them looking up at you or wanting you to play with them.
I could rant on and on for days about how we have become basically zombies and slaves to the devices in our hand and at our homes. So the next time you are out and want to have a good time, try to put your phone away and see how much you've missed. Make a list for yourself to see how many moments you would've missed if you were checking your phone instead of actually being there mentally with your friends and/or family. It is just very sad to see what everything has become. Just remember that it can't hurt to disconnect to reconnect and you should try it sometime!
