This past weekend I traveled with a group of exchange students to Iguazu Falls in the Misiones province of Argentina. Come Sunday morning I found myself standing at the edge of the falls snapping picture after picture trying to capture the insanely gorgeous view around me. Four hundred and sixty photos later I turned to my friend and complained that I couldn’t capture how amazing it actually was and that I couldn’t even begin to explain it to my friends and family back at home. What she told me next rocked my world, “Cass, this isn’t for them. This trip is for you to experience something new.”
Just like that something clicked. I was going about everything all wrong. Instead of embracing the amazing experience of being so close to one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, I was thinking about which picture would make the best Instagram post.
In a day and age where people are often more consumed with what is happening on their phone as opposed to what is occurring around them it is easy to forget that we are missing valuable experiences. How often do you go out to dinner with friends and almost everyone is on their phone before food comes? Or worse, do what I did and focus more on capturing memories than having the full experience? Now I’m not saying taking photos and using social media is bad, but I think that many of us have gotten to the point where we could really use a step back.
There are tons of simple ways that we can start moving away from the phones, tablets, and whatever next Apple product they convince us is necessary for survival. One fun idea for a night out is to stack up the phones on the table and who ever reaches for their phone first pays for the tip. (If all of your friends are masters of self-restraint put the phones on vibrate and whosever rings first loses). Other tactics could include leaving all the phones in a bowl off to the side or just agreeing to keep them in your bags.
All of these ideas are aimed at groups, but sometimes alone time is when our phones are most often used. Our phones are our security blankets making us seem busy and important even if we’re only working on level 400 of Candy Crush. Simply put, many of use are addicted and are missing some incredible experiences because of it.
As I wrap this up, I just want to point out that there is no age group immune to this. Whether it is the kid playing a video game rather than playing hide and go seek, the teenagers standing in a group texting each other, or a grandparent sharing their third Facebook article of the day. Everyone, at some point, has lost time and real experiences to technology. I’m proud to say that for the rest of the trip to Iguazu I only took another six photos and I enjoyed my time so much more. This was especially true at the end of the day when we got soaked by the falls and I didn’t have to worry about ruining my phone. I haven’t sworn off phones for good, it’s still my lifeline, but I’m going to try to focus more on the people and places around me because my friend was right: we don’t have experiences just to entertain other people, we need to live for ourselves.
