If you’re below the age of 40, chances are you have an addiction….an addiction to technology. You probably have a phone with internet, and if you don’t, you’re probably thinking about it.
If you walk into a high school, middle school, or college, you will see tons of young adults/teenagers/pre-teens on their cell phones. Being 21 years old myself and the proud user of an iPhone, I can definitely say that I have a problem. I am constantly on twitter or facebook or pinterest or tumblr or some other social networking site. I know them all. I’m always checking my e-mail, always doing something on my phone. The thing is, I think it’s only going to get worse as time goes by. The more people that have internet on their cell phones, the more people there are going to be that are disconnected from the world. I’m not saying that iPhones or whatever phones there are in the world are evil, but mostly, it’s just the fact that we don’t know when to plug it off and communicate with real people in real time.
I consider myself a bit of a hermit. I absolutely love spending all day watching movies inside with a cup of tea. If I am out of my apartment, I’m probably on my phone acting like I’m paying attention to whoever it is that is talking to me in real life. However, I have noticed this past semester that the more I choose to be disconnected from the world, the more awkward I am with real people. This leads to me not having conversations with many people. This leads to me choosing to stay home rather than get outside. This leads to me wasting my life. I have wasted so much of my life lately.
What caused this sudden realization? I actually chose to not be on my cell phone this week doing useless things. Instead, I chose to look outside. Oh my goodness. How beautiful is it out there?! My God created that Earth! For the first time in a long time, I felt alive. I spoke to people. I listened to people. I danced with people. And I know you can do stuff like that with people on the Internet, but let’s face it…it’s not the same.
My advice for you this week? Open your eyes and put down the computer/cell phone. There is a world out there that God created. It’s time to see it.
You are so right. That’s great that you took the initiative to “reconnect” to the real world and see what God has made for us.