Recently I broke my phone and was also a little too broke to pay my phone bill, so here I am operating off of an old iPhone 4 (which is dreadfully slow) and can only work on wifi. At first, all I could think is "What am I going to do without a phone?!" But after about a month and a half of living pretty much without it, I can't say I'm that upset anymore.

I've had to take three eight-hour road trips without absolutely any contact to the outside world and when I'm in a place that doesn't have wifi, which is pretty much everywhere back home, I'm forced to really live in the moment and take in my surroundings.

I never realized how much I'd pick up my phone before to go on Twitter or Instagram when I'm with my friends hanging out or even at a party which is supposed to be a completely social setting, until I was picking up my phone ten thousand times and sliding it open to realize that I can't even use it.

I've realized how rude it is to be in the middle of a conversation and someone pick up their phone and become completely unresponsive when trying to ask them a question. I've also realized how much you'll enjoy the people you're with and the time you're having if you submerge yourself completely in what you're doing.

This holiday season I think everyone should take the time to put their phone on airplane mode so they're not distracted by notifications or texts and just genuinely enjoy time with friends and family. You never know when you're last moment with someone is, and you don't want your last memory to be, your faces in a phone.