I will begin this article by addressing all of those who have been dwelling under rocks recently. "Pokémon GO," a recently released gaming app, has been long and anxiously awaited by fans of the animated show. I personally have not watched the show and have not adapted the widespread "gotta catch 'em all" mentality, though I have no problem with those who have. However, as I see hundreds of people wandering around in public places, with their children and families and friends, on vacation, running errands, heads down, nearly being struck vehicles, and running into poles, I have no words for the sheer impact Nintendo's most recent addition has had on the masses other than these.

Completely terrifying.

And to be quite honest, as I watch people breaking into a sprint to hatch their eggs or stopping in an intersection to catch a Pokémon, all I can picture is an evil man standing over a crystal ball over at Nintendo headquarters, watching us all wander stupidly and twisting his mustache, laughing maniacally and saying "dance my puppets, dance." I am in the fortunate position of clueless bystander in this situation so I can more objectively get a grip of what is happening here. And "Pokemon GO" certainly isn't the first time we've seen this unfold. Think back to the release of Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, the smartphone. We've been witnessing the evolution of technological means of population control for decades. Thing is, we now have the technology to effectively implement this level of control into the daily lives of people we don't know. At this point, you're probably thinking this is some batsh*t crazy rant about mind control and how technology is taking over our lives. And at this point I'll tell you one thing, it's not as batsh*t crazy as you think.

Think about it this way. How many times have you heard an amazing story told by a group of your friends and wish you had been there to see it? Thing is, with the monopoly that social media holds over our train of thought, we could be in the same freaking room, and WE WOULD STILL MISS OUT. It's absolutely incredible.

Another disclaimer: this is not one of those holier-than-thou messages because that's the thing about our addiction to technology (and it is absolutely an addiction): we are all in deep, yet we have no intention whatsoever of making any change beyond thinking aloud "God, I'm on my phone too much." I will get off my hypocritical-sounding high horse right now to assure you that I am just as guilty of it. As I'm writing this, I am in a car with three of my best friends and none of us are saying a thing to each other. So it's not a matter of quitting cold turkey because our only-ever-increasing addiction to our handheld devices is testament to the ineffectiveness of this strategy for most people. It's a matter of forcing ourselves to be more conscious of what we do and how we spend our valuable and--let's face it--rapidly decreasing time on this planet. It's a matter of introspectively analyzing our own behavior in groups, even alone, and asking ourselves why our phones receive more attention than family, friends, even the professors we pay $18,000, $25,000, sometimes as much as $50,000 a year to listen to. It's a matter of asking ourselves constantly "What is wrong with this picture?"

Turn off, unplug, and be present. I promise you that somebody else will always be there to share videos of the BuzzFeed staff drinking strange mixtures of Kool-Aid, ketchup, and protein powder, tweet about "Game of Thrones," or catch a Charmander (I googled the spelling of Charmander).

Also, if you're interested in viewing a cool illustration of the hold technology has over us, click the link here!