It’s a simple word: live. Only four letters long, with a meaning that could fill up volumes longer than an encyclopedia. Or at least it should.

All too often these days, pictures of quotes and inspiring pictures appear on my various social media home feeds from others who are striving to make a positive image and to remind themselves and others that this life isn’t quite as bad as we tend to imagine sometimes. Which is great, except when the quotes go from being a regular post every month to a regular post every few hours. When the blips on stories go from every few days to every few minutes of a single day. When the statuses go from daily to by the second. That is not living. That is successfully becoming a computer.

Don’t get me wrong, I love social media. I love being able to keep in touch with my friends who are interning hours away in New York City and California. They are gone creating new experiences, but still want to take the time to talk to me. To keep me in touch in whatever near-physical way that they can. When they have time, and that’s the key, we are social media trolls. We take the time to keep in touch, always knowing that we have other responsibilities. When I go to the zoo or the amusement park or a festival, I take a picture or send a snap and then I live. I take in what is around me without encumbering metal because, quite frankly, it gets in my way.

I love the feeling the ground below me shake from the bass of music; my phone loves to record it as static. I love seeing the Atlantic Ocean as a murky expanse; my camera loves to saturate it to an unreal Caribbean blue. I love smelling burgers fresh from the grill and tasting grilled cheese and thinking of combining the two together; my keyboard loves stealing the food’s crumbs. We put our technology and media on a pedestal, while too often forgetting its drawbacks. A piece of metal with chips can’t replace real-life potato chips, just as a barn can’t replace a chicken. In the end they are two separate entities with different demands and purposes. And in the end, I’d rather be the chicken. Alive.

So as this summer continues, look at your friend’s photographs and be jealous and joyous and happy and everything in between. Feel. Take your own pictures and record your concerts, for a time. Then put the phone in your pocket and make memories of your own.