The other day I was walking down the street and noticed an unaccompanied child running around. I wondered if this kid was lost and needed help finding his parents. I observed my surroundings and suddenly heard a voice calling out to the little boy. It was his mother who was yards behind him, phone in hand, fixated on her iPhone. It was a hand-to-face moment; this is what parenting in the 21^st century has come to. Let me be clear: not every parent in this day and age is completely glued to his or her phone or computer and oblivious to the whereabouts and manners of his or her children. On the other hand, I have increasingly seen parents be more focused on what they see on their phones than on what's right in front of them. I am fully supportive of technology and its ability to make the seemingly impossible possible, but I can't help but express that it's been a source of a lot of problems concerning social behaviors. As devices become more convenient to use, allowing people to access absolutely anything at the touch of a button, people become more dependent on what their phone offers as opposed to what reality offers.

A prime issue with technology, namely social media, is that it clearly misrepresents reality. As young adults, we can attest to scrolling down our Instagram feeds and seeing people post pictures of their most glamorous lifestyles. We can't help but compare our lives with theirs and tell ourselves that we're doing something wrong. We think to ourselves, "I want to live like that. I want to go on trips to Bora Bora. I want drive a Mercedes. I want to be able to quit my job, be financially stable and travel the world. My life sucks." At some point or another, we've felt this way when coming across people whose feeds demonstrate this type of life. It would be great to live like that, but understand that not everything is what it's made out to be. This is the ultimate truth behind social media. I know of many people who use social media to merely display to others a lifestyle that is not reflective of their reality. Let's be honest, no one puts out his or her failures and problems on social media. Everyone strives to put the best pictures, the best outfits, the best accomplishments. It has reached the point that we've become absolutely absorbed by the digital world that we have been slowly but surely losing touch with the real world. Some parents are letting their children roam freely paying no attention to what they're doing since they're too busy on their phones. Authentic human connection is becoming a rarity since we can just easily talk to people via text. People are developing a false sense of reality in constantly comparing their own situations with those of others just by looking at what is posted on social media.

Everyone is entitled to posting whatever he or she wants on social media, but it's important to not take everything that's presented at face value. There can be sadness behind a smile, insecurity behind a bikini picture, relationship issues behind a cute couple post. Nothing's ever really guaranteed, so while it may be hard to not think that others might be living better than you, just know that reality is much different. We should not buy into the idea that social media is in any way representative of the truth. Instead, we should spend more time shaping our realities in the real world, focusing on what's right in front of us.