My friends and I have this rule that, anytime we go out to dinner together, we all have to put our phones in the middle of the table. If someone touches their phone or uses it for any reason, they technically have to pay for everyone’s meal. One of us usually cracks, leading to the downward spiral of us all ending up on our phones.
It’s as if we have this addiction to our cell phones, as if we can’t get through one hour-long dinner without them. The fact that we even have to make up a game in which we test our ability to refrain from checking our phones is sad enough. It’s not as if we are looking at anything interesting while we are on them. It’s usually just staged Instagram photos of people desperately trying to prove that they’re having more fun and doing cooler things than all their followers. They might have a picture with their “best gal pals,” with them all laughing, but I bet you anything that they stuck their noses in their phones immediately after that photo.
We live in a generation in which we can communicate with others in endless ways: by phone, computer, tablet, iPad, etc. The whole concept of communicating in a face-to-face fashion is quickly dwindling. Whatever happened to knocking on your friend’s door and asking them to hang out, leading you to grab food with them and actually give them your full attention? I look around in restaurants and bars these days, and most people are just scrolling through their phones. Even toddlers are tapping away on their iPads while their mothers pay strict attention to their new iPhone 6s. In the past few decades, we have made groundbreaking technological advances, developed countless ways of communicating, and changed the means of technology as we know it. But at what cost? People have made millions off these inventions, and consumers have high-speed internet and data on their new phones, but we have lost the organic ability to truly connect without technology.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m fully a part of this bandwagon, but there are many times when I try to enjoy a few hours without checking my phone. Throughout my college career, my best times have been when my phone was broken (which has happened on three occasions so far). I was without a phone for a few weeks at a time, and I had to use my iPad or computer to talk with my parents or text friends. When people heard about my situation, they would feel so bad for me, as if I were suffering or in pain. But I would always tell them how liberating it was; I had the chance to go out into the world and fully pay attention to my surroundings. I found myself paying closer attention in class, and I even felt closer to my friends. It was like a detox from technology, a chance to experience a life in which my phone didn’t constantly have control over me, but rather, I had control over me.
Sometimes I wish that I lived back in the days when phones and computers didn’t exist, because then maybe I would know how it felt to truly live in the moment. No more Snapchatting every single thing I do, no more posting Instagrams every couple of days to prove that I have a life, no more scrolling through Twitter to see what people I don’t know or care about are thinking. I implore you all to take a night off from your phone, to get some space from it; you might just enjoy yourself more without it. I see it as a way to get my sight back, so that I can make real memories with those around me, rather than making them up through social media.
