We are all technology obsessed. Phones and tablets and snapchat and Instagram have taken over the world. This fourth of July I went to see a couple different towns fireworks. Hundreds and hundreds of people gathering to spend time with friends and family and experience a classic Fourth of July tradition.

Unfortunately, watching the fireworks has turned into taking pictures of fireworks on our cell phones for our stories.

I saw a countless amount of people of all ages staring at their phones instead of the sky and it saddened me greatly. Children who stared at a screen watching videos or taking snapshots which they do constantly while something much more wonderful was happening right before their eyes. Or even worse, adults, parents, staring at bright screens, ignoring their children. Children are very monkey see monkey do creatures so when they see their parents or friends ignoring something for their phones, they do the same and so the cycle continues. So to those who took pictures of the fireworks instead of watching them, guess what! No one cares. No one is opening those Snapchats and actually watching them because if people wanted to see fireworks, they would go see them in person. I can also promise you that you will never need those picture. You can post them all you want but in a month, they will be useless.

Our entire world is becoming digital and it's so easy to get sucked in and forget what it's actually like to live in the real world. We let these bright screens and the new and improved define us without realizing that maybe new does not mean better. So I chose to watch the fireworks because they are oh so beautiful. I chose to live in the moment instead of document it. The world is passing by us and if we spend our lives taking pictures of the fireworks, we will never see them.