Take a minute to think about when the last time you pulled out your phone to ask Siri a question, look up an answer you couldn’t remember, send a text, take a picture or check your social media. For most of us, it probably wasn’t that long ago.

Growing up, many of us, belonging to the so called “Digital Generation”, have become almost ‘addicted’ to our cellular or mobile devices. Although I often find myself consumed in social media, and my phone in general, I agree with the fact that technology has offered major advantages in helping the world develop. On the other hand, I think there are many things that especially, we as teens, and adults that use technology, don’t recognize as problems of reliance on our electronics.

Speaking from personal experience, over time, with technology becoming more and more popular, one pattern develops within the majority of us: the loss of social, face-to-face interaction. Avoiding conversation with others is something that is very common nowadays. Whether it’s in the hallways when you see someone you don’t want to converse with at the moment or it is an awkward time during a conversation between individuals, or groups, many times we put off talking and depend on our phones to save us from interactions like these.

In most situations, we act as though our friends, or people, on social media, are more important and easier to talk to, than the ones we have in real life. When being separated from my cell phone, iPad or computer, I know I always I feel as though I am  isolated from all communications with my friends. This ‘addiction’ is often caused by social media, and the fact that without online interactions, I feel closed off, without the luxury of technology.

Another disadvantage of the technology, for us, as students, is the amount we have to rely on our devices for our education. In the classroom environment, it is often easy to get distracted by our technology, and lose interest in what is going on around us. Similar to being distracted, regardless of whether it’s in an academic setting or not, kids and teens have shown dependence on the Internet as well as other apps or tools on their devices. Students who are puzzled or confused with a topic often times turn to the internet to look up answers we cannot find. The problem that this causes for us is that we lose the ability to think and consider all of the possibilities or solutions, to whatever it is that we need assistance on.

Thinking in terms of an easy solution, there are a couple simple ways to avoid these problems. Although it may be hard to overcome something that we are surrounded by in our community today, there are ways to limit  the usage, and dependence, we have on our devices, as well as the negatives that come along with them.

One of the easiest methods to solve our reliance is to simply limit the time we spend on social media, or just technology itself. Forcing yourself to leave your cellphone at home, completely turning off your device or just setting specific times to use technology is one approach to help limit becoming too reliant on the devices that we are constantly surrounded by. For instance, before conversations with others, I try to set my  phone aside, so that distractions will be eliminated, and I then can have a conversation with a friend, peer or adult that isn’t interrupted by technology. If sometimes I feel as though I only communicate with my friends through messaging, I try and call someone to see how they’re doing, or how their day went.

Overall, as our world becomes more technologically advanced, I believe that it will be important to correctly prioritize what is important in our lives so that we are not fully consumed in our electronics.

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Do you think technology use is a big deal? Let us know in the comments below.

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