Anywhere you go, someone has a phone in their hand or a tablet or laptop in their lap. It’s inevitable in today’s world, especially on college campuses. Our current generation is really the first to have what we consider such advanced technology. Walking to class, I can’t go one step without seeing someone with their ear buds in or headphones on, texting a friend or family member, talking to someone whether it be through video chat or an actual phone call, and I wonder. I wonder why we feel the need to always have music constantly playing in our ears, why we feel the need to remain connected to someone, even passively on social media.

I wonder what our campus looked like five, ten, even twenty years ago. I know there weren’t many cell phones twenty years ago. Would people actually look up and say hi and smile to the people they were passing? Did they hang out between classes, in the grass, and have actual conversations that weren’t interrupted by someone sending a text or showing everyone else the funny cat video on their phone?

I admit, I too am guilty of doing what I question. In fact, I’m using the social media to promote my article, so what am I talking about right? Still, I want to know what it would be like if people actually took out their ear buds and listened to the world around them, or if they took their eyes off their phone screens and saw what was going on around them. What would that look like? I don’t know, and I don’t know who would, but maybe we could all find out? Who knows what might happen if we were to just “unplug” for a day.

Maybe it's time to "unplug."