BY MORGAN PRACHAR (’17)
Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and many more apps are what keep us glued to our phones. Whether we are driving, sleeping, staying at school, or running, our phones are always by our sides. We talk to friends most of the time, but behind a screen, even if we’re next to each other. We love to look at other people’s social lives, but rarely spend time making our own more interesting. I’m guilty of it, too; when my phone goes off I automatically feel the need to check what’s going on.
Phones are everything we need all in one; textbooks, worksheets, email, music, books, alarms, and so many more apps that fulfill our everyday needs, well, so we think. We’re constantly checking what others are doing; even if it makes us feel bad about our social lives, we still care.
Heartfelt, hand written letters are a blast from the past. Letters show the receiver that the person took time to write letters and are a tangible object that you can keep for as long as you want. A text is easy to send but the emotion is hidden behind a screen.
According to Pew Research Center, 75% of teens have smartphones, where as 24% fess up to being online constantly. More than 3,000 teens die each year from them, or their driver, texting while driving. I believe that teens should use their phones in moderation. Our phones are attached to our hips 24/7, but we should be using some of the time we spend looking at other peoples social lives, making our own more exciting.
Teachers deal with the daily struggle of getting students to put away their technology. But when the screen lights up, our eyes dart to the screen. We can now order food, clothes, household items, hotels, check your bank account, book a flight, on your phone. So basically phones are taking over the world, lol.
We should find the beauty in taking the extra time writing letters, instead of talk-type texting; being outside when the weather is nice, instead of looking at pictures of it. But what is missing is the true beauty of face to face conversations, being able to hear the emotion the other person is feeling. Phones are making us more anti-social than ever, although your instagram may look pretty social. Go ahead take pictures, text your friends, spend time on social media, but don’t forget what the world outside of our screens look like.
