Now a days everything is moving so fast pace. We rarely have to wait long for daily needs such as drive-thru coffee, traveling place to place, or getting ahold of people. Everything we want we can have in the shortest amount of time. Which lead to the explosion of smart phones. Millennials, have been surrounded and raised into a world of new and improved technology. It is crazy to think that just one touch of a button (or not even a button now) you can call someone that very instant. Not to mention how easy it is to text someone because we don’t actually want to have face to face conversation with people, plus calling someone takes too much time. So of course texting is the easiest way to communicate with someone. Living in a fast pace world, it just makes sense to rely on them to get what we need to say ASAP.
There have been far too many times where I’ll be standing outside of the classroom with fellow classmates waiting on the teacher, and instead of talking and mingling with each other what do we do? We stand there on our phones because it feels more important to see who posted on Instagram, or keep up on twitter with all the political shit. Because of the world we were born into, we don’t know any other way. We feel awkward if we don’t know anyone so we just act like the phone is our friend, and if we are staring into are phone we aren’t being awkward. From what I have heard from peers and friends, is that almost every relationship starts over text or social media. It’s sad, sliding into someone’s DM’s is not as flattering as if they were to come up to you in person and ask how your day is going. Yes, you may feel awkward if you get shut down, but you should not feel awkward by meeting someone in person before you talk to them over social media or texting.
A HUGE reason we need to relax with social media is that it can be so picture perfect, girls especially. I know for a fact girls stalk girls on Instagram way more than they do so to boys. We see a beautiful girl with a rockin’ body and instantly compare ourselves to them. Then, we follow them and start liking and commenting on their pictures and now we are BFF’s. It’s not healthy to constantly compare yourself to famous Instagramers or Victoria secret models. Love who you are. Your beauty is not measured by how many likes or comments you get on a photo. It seems so crazy to think about. I know so many people who check Instagram constantly after they post a picture. Like by like, they see who is all liking it and if one person in particular didn’t like it, it means that they don’t like you. Social media is capable of brainwashing so many of us now a days.
A way to prevent yourself from drowning in your phone would be to log out of the apps you use the most. This makes it harder to check the app whenever you want because you will have to log back in and it’s a hassle. Another thing that can help is to not leave it out on a table. Whether you are in class, at a restaurant, or even at home just hanging out. When you have your phone out whether is facing down or not, it kinda tells the person you are with that you are not going to give them your full attention because they are not a priority. One last thing that I have been trying to do to help with my attentiveness is leaving my phone at home when I know I am not going to have any use for it. When going to the grocery store or the gym, leave it behind. You will not believe how many more conversations you will get out of it. We only have so much time in life, and being in college is consuming enough. Why should we waste a large amount of that time by being sucked into social media? It’s time to put down our phones and start being control again.