The other day, I was sitting in my room, staring at my bookshelf filled with half-read books. When I was a child, reading was one of my favorite things to do. You could always find me with a book, sometimes reading a novel in a day or staying up late at night just to read one more chapter. However, now, I realize that something has changed since I was a 10-year-old, and that’s my lack of concentration. I find that I have developed a great ability to get distracted when I am reading, struggling to read the words in front of me without skipping blocks of paragraphs or typing one sentence of my essay and then minimizing the Word document, once again mindlessly scrolling through Facebook.

Of course, this ability to get easily distracted when I (and other young adults) are reading (or really doing anything) all stems from social media. We want our news quickly and most importantly, we want it to capture our attention from the start. This is why listicles and YouTube videos are so popular. This is why when writing articles, writers such as myself are encouraged to skip long blocks of texts and create multiple paragraph breaks, in order to not bore or isolate the reader.

Now this is not saying that I hate technology or social media. I think it’s one of the most important tools we have and often brings people together. However, part of me does have a desire to go back to times when I was so engrossed in a novel that I forgot the world around me. And unfortunately, I have not been able to recapture that feeling in a very long time.

I think it is important for us to try to take a step back from social media and take in the world around us. It doesn’t have to be through reading that book you have always wanted to read. It could simply mean really listening to the lyrics of your favorite song and allowing the words to flow through you, taking you to another place. Or it could mean truly listening to your friend and not simply just waiting for your turn to talk. Or it could mean walking outside on a nice day, feeling the breeze and observing the world around you without any distractions.

Ultimately, it isn’t important what your method of involving yourself in the world is. It’s making sure you do something wholeheartedly, without staring at your phone, waiting for a text or constantly checking Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. So, try to disengage yourself from what everyone else is doing and focus on the most important person: you.