I'm a big social media guy, I'll admit it. I have been for quite some time now. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Snapchat occupy a good chunk of my spare time. After logging on and perhaps "favoriting" and "liking" a few tweets or comments and statements, I just start scrolling, just arbitrarily gliding down on my newsfeed. This happens nearly every time I log on, and whether I admit it or not, the more time that goes by while I'm using these sites, the less I pay attention or even realize what I'm doing. Talk about a waste of time.

Regardless, what I'm getting at reflects not only social media, but the usage of technology and its media as a whole. Although in the last decade alone mankind has taken bounds in the fields of commercial technology — think in terms of cell phones, from the Razr to today's iPhone 6 — we have our heads sucked too deep into these gadgets and screens that we fail to take into account the pleasures and beauty of the world around us. I can't begin to count the number of times I've strolled through campus at the University of Toledo and passed someone who, instead of smiling or even making eye contact, had their face buried in front of some small screen.

A recent study in the U.K. found that children today will have spent a quarter of their lives staring at a screen by the time they die. Logically speaking, that's an incredible amount of time to distract oneself from the actual living world, and what results from this out-of-touch relationship with reality is unfamiliarity with the living world. Nature Deficiency is a term used today to address this very demographic in question. The youth of today — millennials especially — lead lifestyles constantly plugged in, technology swept and commercialized by self-promotion. Coming from someone guilty of this as well, take it as a kind reminder that so often we find ourselves staring at screens depicting gorgeous locales we can only dream of traveling to and exploring when these very same places actually exist.

The future is now, and technology is advancing at a seemingly exponential rate, yet it’s not crucial that we as humans cater our lifestyles to it, but instead let it improve our way of life. The advancements of today present us with excellent platforms of communication and resource, but we can’t forget the fact that these miraculous inventions exist to serve us, not the contrary. Man was designed to master the elements, to climb to the top of the food chain, to conquer and exist in harmony with the natural world, not work nine-to-five in a cubicle hunched over the LED-backlit flat screen of a computer.

Although I’m not advocating that everyone immediately drop everything battery powered and head to the hills, I am a firm believer that everything that composes human life needs to exist in balance, and the complexity of the natural and technological worlds proves no exception. As mankind moves at an unstoppable pace toward the future, it’s crucial that we don’t allow our dependence on contemporary technology to overshadow our connection to the natural world around us. We aren’t the sole species that inhabits Earth, and as industrialism spreads, so with it comes an imposing threat to organisms that have inhabited this planet much longer than intelligent man has. Everything in existence today does so in harmony with the rest of the natural world, and mankind shouldn’t be an exception. We can be innovative, intuitive, and prosperous without losing touch with our natural roots. All that’s needed is simply a sense of balance.

Now give your device a bit of rest and give your real-world some attention. Step outside and enjoy the wonderful world that so often gets forgotten in the shadow of today’s big screens and electronics.