Austin Sumter, Campus Carrier Online Editor
Have you looked around lately? Isn’t it beautiful outside? The smell of freshly cut grass, wonderful sunshine, clear blues skies; it’s just lovely. You would think that everyone would be out enjoying the weather, but whenever I take a look around campus, I see all of the wonderful springtime wonders… and people looking down. And they all seem to be looking at the same thing: their phones.
All around there are tons of people just looking down at their phones and missing the wonderful days of beautiful weather we’ve been having. And it’s not just when walking around outside. You’ve probably seen whole groups of people at a dinner table all looking at their phones or friends just sitting around not really paying attention to anything other than what’s on their little screen.
It’s depressing how much our whole lives have become centered around the little rectangles in our pockets. I personally love my little rectangle, and I am certainly guilty of getting caught up in texting or games or SnapChat or the Internet; it’s really addicting. The ability to switch between so many things with just the little computer in my pocket totally satisfies my very short attention span because of all the texting or gaming or SnapChatting or Internetting that I can do. But the purpose of a phone is to connect us and modern cell phone modifications are actually tearing us apart.
There have been countless times I’ve been with a friend and they’ve been completely distracted with their phone and it basically cut off any further communication. Sometimes it was for work or a situation with family members which is totally understandable; but sometimes it was just a random text message that basically stopped the entire conversation.
This is the part where you say, “But, Austin, I paid good money for my phone; why shouldn’t I use it?” I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use our phones because I definitely need mine every day. The problem is with people becoming so obsessed with their phone that we can’t be without it for a couple hours at a time or we’re so absorbed with it that we don’t watch where we’re going. Just last week I saw someone walk into a stop sign because she was texting or Googling or whatever.
What I propose is a happy medium. Go ahead and text and game and SnapChat and Internet when you’re not doing something like eating or meeting friends or walking. Take a good whiff of the freshly cut grass and feel the sunshine on your face and look at the clear blue skies while you can, because they won’t be around forever and you won’t be around forever. Don’t let all of your memories be from the little rectangle in your pocket. Look up and see the beauty around you.