What are you doing right now? Sitting and reading this article on your smart phone, or maybe your laptop? Well, I’m glad you came across this because if you are like anyone else in the world, you are most likely always on the phone. I’m not bashing it, I do it too, but it’s time to stop it. It’s hard. We have the whole world at the touch of a finger. We can post pictures of any event, tag our friends and places that we are, and bitch about anything that is on our mind for the whole world to see. While it may be convenient, it is also detrimental to our society.

When you sit at dinner on your phone with your significant other, what do you miss? You miss talking about your day. You miss the simple things. You miss connecting with them instead of thousands of people, which I would bet about 970 of them you probably do not talk to or care about. While one of you is bored and staring at your phone screen, the other one is looking at you and looking at every little part of you that they love but miss because they feel like you are on a different planet.

When you go to your kid’s school play, and you feel your phone buzzing and you keep texting people and checking social media, what are you missing? You are missing that moment where they see that and all of their hard word isn’t worth anything anymore. You are missing seeing their hard work and dedication pay off.

When you are sitting in a room full of people and you are on your phone, what are you missing? You could be missing the chances to make many new friends. You could be missing endless memories that you could be making instead of checking Twitter.

When you are with your friends and you are all on your phones, what are you missing? Well, you are missing memories but you are also missing the chance to become best friends with people who are just friends. You are missing that moment where you could be laughing and carrying on while you check to see what's happening with random strangers who you barely know. You are missing the possibility to find your bridesmaids and the people that will always stand by you no matter what.

Don’t take this all the wrong way, social media isn’t a completely toxic thing. I have many social media accounts and sometimes, probably more than sometimes, I have sat and let my life just fly by while I sat on my phone and played games and just looked through social media. I am not innocent in this, however, I know it is an issue that needs to be changed in many of our lives. Make small changes and go from there. Just remember to cherish what you have close to you. Don’t let silly things take away from that.