I sit down to write this after having lunch with my twelve year old sister where I had to beg her to put her phone down and talk to me. Time after time I have become so frustrated with myself and those around me for constantly being absorbed in our phones rather than what is going on around us. I've started to notice how it is my natural tendency to reach for my phone if I have gone a mere five minutes without checking it. Through this I've realized that while my eyes are glued to my phone, they are completely disengaged from those around me, and one day I'm really going to regret this and so will you.

As a generation, we are wasting our lives checking social media and seeing what other people are doing and thinking at this very second. How different would our days be if we stopped checking our phones every five minutes, stopped texting people instead of talking to the people in front of us, and stopped trying to compare our lives to the lives of those who light up our phone with their new pictures and snapchat stories. One day when we are older we are going to regret the times we spent with our friends that we were absorbed in scrolling through our Instagram feed. One day when our parents have passed, we will want to kick ourselves for spending so much time texting rather than talking to them at dinner. One day we will look back on our lives and realize that though we lived fully and happily, we could have soaked in our youth so much more rather than being absent from our obsession with whatever electronic device was in our hand that year.

The problem with social media is that we are wrapping ourselves up in a false pretense every time we unlock our phones. Social media profiles are a perfected, edited, made-over view of our day to day lives so we can bury our insecurities in making other people think we live perfect lives. I've actually heard my friends say that if we go out somewhere and don't post a picture, then why did we even go? Why does it matter? Are we so absorbed in showing other people that we are having a good time that we forget to actually have a good time? Why are we so obsessed with what other people are doing when we know that everyone selects their photos and edits them to show you what they want you to see? Rarely do you see a completely genuine and honest social media profile that shows the bumps and bruises of life rather than editing them out with filters and a clever caption.

I spend a lot of my time thinking about youth. I know this may be weird because I am not even twenty years old yet, but I am terrified of growing old and realizing that I wasted my time as a young person with my face stuck in my cell phone scrolling through mindless information. I think about the generations before us and how simply they lived. They went out, enjoyed their time with their friends, saw movies, went to dinner, enjoyed a night on the town all the while not worrying about updating their snapchat story or posting to their Instagram so everyone would know they were out having fun. They were more worried about actually having fun than convincing everyone else that they were. That is my biggest problem with my generation and technology because I see it every day. We don't even realize what we are missing out on because we don't look up from our phones long enough to see it.

Were wasting our lives because this is what we spend most of our time absorbing.We take in these false ideas that everyone around us is so secure and so happy that there must be something wrong with us if we are not having fun and "living the life" 100% of the time. We are wasting our lives because we would rather ignore what is around us to tune in to the projections of our friends and celebrities on their profiles.

So here is my warning to myself and my millennial generation: if we don't stop and realize how we toxically indulge ourselves through our phones constantly, we are going to realize it when it's too late. For the next week, watch yourself and watch how often you reach for your phone or refresh your timeline for the fifth time hoping something new will pop up. Step back and take a look at yourself from the outside. I've done this now, and I couldn't believe how much reaching for my phone has become a second nature. This is not to demonize phones, texting or social media at all... but moderation is key and most of us do not know moderation when it comes to our phones. I honestly believe that one day we will regret having wasted our youth staring into our phones rather than embracing and loving those around us. Nothing lasts forever. Enjoy your life while it is in front of you, rather than looking back and saying "what if."

Also: while writing this article I reached for my phone a total of three times... while sitting here writing about how we should stop reaching for our phones. Start keeping track of how many times your reach for yours. You will be shocked.