We’re all guilty of it: sitting in a room full of people, staring at the glowing piece of glass and wires in your hand. At some point, someone has to say enough is enough.
Yes, it is true that the very nature of the internet and cell phones is meant to bring us closer together, but it seems they are doing a better job of driving us apart. Look around at any group of friends and you’ll see that more than half of them are more concerned with their iPhones than with each other. Since when are LCD screens more interesting than living, breathing human beings? Take your eyes off your phone and give some attention to the friend you can see.

In addition to that, Facebook and Twitter are too quickly becoming the measure of friends. You’re popular on Twitter because you have 2,000 followers? You have 750 friends on Facebook? How many of those people do you actually know? How many have you actually met? Friends should be judged based on quality, not quantity, and it seems a little ridiculous trying to keep 700 friends when you could have 30 good friends, or 20 great friends, or 10 amazing friends. And those friends are made through shared experience, not one shared “like.”

Beyond keeping friends in the palm of our hands, cameras are completely taking over the world. You’ve seen it: You’re standing behind a hundred people at a concert, trying to see the stage, but your view is blocked by 27 iPhones and 30 giant Androids. Suddenly you aren’t watching a concert; you’re watching someone record a concert. You get all the hearing damage with none of the benefits of actually seeing these people, not to mention the fact that you’re just asking for someone who is actually having fun to come up and accidentally knock that $300 life-invader to the ground. The point is, people are trying too hard to “capture the moment” without realizing that time and feelings need space to breathe.

Now, this doesn’t mean phones are evil, cameras are the devil, or social media is a parasite on the lives of young adults. What I’m trying to say is, take a step back from your phone every once in a while. If you’re eating with a group of people, put your phone in your pocket. When you’re out and about, take a picture or two and then be done with it. Live in the moment, not in your memories. If you don’t, you might wind up looking back and thinking “why don’t I remember that?” and the answer is “because you weren’t really there.”