One night I was at dinner with my family, I never realized this, but I don’t really talk much when we go out to eat or even at the dinner table at home. It is not that I do not know how to hold a conversation but just the fact that there was not much talking going on in the first place. It is as if this has become a natural reaction to me to pull out my phone and scroll through endless pictures and posts of people. It wasn’t just me, my mom had her phone out playing Candy Crush, my dad was looking at sports pages, and my little brother was watching Netflix. I looked around; there were plenty of people who had their phone out during dinner. Everyone was in their own little world and not even paying attention to who they actually ate with. Nothing was going to change after an hour, so why does my finger keep scrolling down to refresh the page. I decided to put my phone down and quit checking Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.
I can honestly say, the difference of putting my phone down for just an hour was eye opening. It made me realize of how important real life communication is. Even though I was with my family, I learned so much more about them that I didn’t even realize before. When I go out to eat with my friends, I decided I would do the same. Of course social media has its positive aspects such as communication and networking. I’m not saying completely take social media out of your life; I’m saying that we shouldn’t let something like that consume our lives. We Snapchat our latest Starbucks runs and take a picture of our food at every meal. We are wired to document every moment of our lives just so others could know. The point of all this is that there is a false sense of connection. We form all these less meaningful connections and put less time into the more important relationships. We want others to know about our lives on the Internet but forget about spending real life quality time.
The obsession with social media in recent generations has increased dramatically. We put so much time into updating and posting about our life that we live in this virtual world. I am guilty for scrolling through Instagram, checking through Twitter, then rotating back a couple minutes later just to find myself looking at the same thing. Why? I am so engulfed into others people’s life and getting the updates. Not just that, I want to show others what my life is and what I am doing. There is this sense as if I’m missing out on something. I have all this anxiety built up because I do not want miss out on something big, even though all the posts are about food or dogs. We all enjoy social media, some sort of pleasure in knowing everything that is going on. Next time you go out to eat or go somewhere, put your phone away and have real life conversations. You will notice that there is more to life than what is on our phones. Meaningful relationships start with actually being there in person and being aware that someone else is there. Focus on your real life, start conversations, and get to know the world. You will notice how much your life will change, trust me.
