Your day begins. You wake to an alarm on your phone where you then proceed to check the weather…and maybe your Facebook newsfeed,  Twitter updates and this is all before you roll out of bed. Breakfast still might consist of a bowl of cereal, but chances are you’re reading headlines on a tablet, computer, or once again your phone instead of a newspaper. You get in the car, drive to work and then chances are you stare at a computer screen all day, with the occasional break to stare at your cellphone (do I need to say cellphone or can I just say phone?). At what point is it too much technology?

As a 21 year old in 2013, I can learn how to use new technology in less than a day and feel comfortable teaching someone else how to use it the next day, but I hate how the world is now with their phones. I am guilty of it too. I keep my phone out with friends, with family, in class, at work, while I am making dinner or even out to dinner- but why? Do we feel that we have to respond to a text from a friend or loved one that fast? Must we like a photo someone tags of us the moment after they post it? Are we scared that some trend on the Internet will happen and die before we even know what it is? What is this weird obsession we all now have that we have to take a picture of the meal we’re about to eat, add a “filter” and a cute hashtag (incase the people of my generation did not realize, we are the hashtag generation, I have decided), and then post it to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc?

Especially during the summer it is easy to forget what day or time it is when you’re having fun outside, on the lake, in the sun- not staring at a screen. A reading from one of my journalism classes this last semester suggested that people today have a better relationship with the screens in their life than their friends and family. Think about it, how much time do you spend actually talking, not texting, skyping, calling, but talking to the people in your life? Our relationships are presented to us on TV this way too. While recently watching a TV show online, yes I know so much technology, one of the short commercials was for a pasta brand advertising an easy date night meal. The couple sits down to a homemade meal and instead of starting a conversation, the woman texts the man saying “I heart date night.” Both of their phones are on the table I noticed. If you are on a date, enjoying a date night, shouldnt the conversation exist between you two, not your screens?

I have noticed that it bothers me when I see people walking down the sidewalk  looking down at their phones that I have been making a conscious  effort not to. Anyone that calls or texts me can wait the 30 minutes for me to enjoy the meal I am eating, the person I am talking to, or the walk that I am taking. It’s like the people that spend the whole concert filming it, instead of enjoying it live. Enjoy the experience you’re having in that moment and tell the story later. Look around at what is going on in the world instead of on your screen, cause guess what- we’re missing it. The people that have the cool things to post and write about are not the ones that are walking around checking their Twitter constantly. Technology is great when it actually advances us, but lately I’ve felt like leaving it behind. It’s summer and my head is up.