I noticed something very interesting as I moseyed my way to an open table at Starbucks the other day. As usual, in Starbucks there were individuals, doubles and a family or so. Everyone had a coffee, a little pastry or something. I had a coffee with a dash of milk and half a packet of sugar. Behind me, I heard people getting things like the caramel macchiato and other weird combinations of things. I like my coffee simple, but that’s beside the point.

Every single person, everyone, had a smart phone in their hand with a hunched back, staring into the abyss of their illuminated screens. Please, don’t get me wrong; I have an iPhone 6s, and yes, I spent most of my time at Starbucks on my iPhone. What I noticed was darting eyes, nervous looks and unconscious hesitancy.

I think that this culture of smartphones and communication through text and Snapchat has made us worse social beings. To shamelessly plug my word of the day, we have become taciturn. We are more unsociable than we used to be. When I was sitting in Starbucks, I noticed this, and I put my phone away into my pocket of my jacket and observed.

Every so often, I would hear a noise of the door opening or someone laughing and would glance over, but that’s not what those with smartphones in their hands did. Their eyes darted towards the disruption, and I saw, especially with those individuals with no one to sit with, something along the lines of fear in their eyes, the fear of someone calling them out for overtly noticing that yes, they are sitting alone and have no one to sit with. I noticed that I too was also sitting alone, but I didn’t care.

The world isn’t a zoo, and we are not on display for others to watch. I quickly realized that I really didn’t care that others were sitting alone, and I really didn’t care about who they were sitting with and what type of coffee they ordered, not because I’m a bad person or because I’m a misanthrope in any way. In fact, it’s the opposite. Really, I’m just indifferent. More people, I think, should be indifferent of others.

I want to use my phone less. I can feel the detrimental affects of it being imposed onto me. When others are talking to me during a normal conversation, I’ll often have my phone near me, so I can pick it up the instant it buzzes. That’s rude.

It’s rude because I’ve been talking to someone over lunch or something along the lines of that, and they’ve picked up their phone and began texting or Snapchatting someone. I thought, suddenly, that what I had to say was somehow inferior to them. No, I was wrong. Really, they’re just rude and find their phone more appealing because communication over smartphone is what our society is beginning to value more and more. As soon as we take that away from some people, they become not only unsociable but also fearful of others’ judgment.

We should be valuing the people directly in front of us and the social situations directly involving us rather than what our phone says or what decided to send you a picture of whatever. In other words, I think innovation is good, but smartphones are destroying our ability to be humans. We should use them less.