Have you ever stopped to think about how much time you spend on your cell phone? Personally, and I can’t believe that I’m admitting this, I sometimes have to remind myself that my phone is not permanently attached to my hand. Between checking texts, emails, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Buzzfeed (a personal favorite), it’s not hard to understand why we’re all obsessed with our phones. While it is great to have the world at our finger tips, we tend to forget when it is time to power down, or at least put our phones away.
When we spend all of our time staring at a screen, we’re actually missing out on important and fun experiences. Just because we can contact any and all of our friends by pressing a few buttons, or instantly upload a perfectly edited picture of the dessert we just ordered, doesn’t mean that we should. A virtual life does not equal a real one. Here’s a guide to some situations where you should try to avoid that gravitational pull that has developed between all of us and our phones.
1. When you’re having a meal with friends:
Unless you are expecting an important call or text, try not to put your phone on the table during meals with friends. Having your phone on the table just makes it harder to resist the urge to use it. Plus, what’s the point in going to dinner with other people if you’re just going to be on your phone the whole time? While it may be completely unintentional, spending the entire meal on your phone is basically sending the message “I would rather talk to the people that I’m texting than to the people that I’m with.” Instead of looking on Facebook to see if you were tagged in any new photos or to stalk your ex-boyfriend, talk to the other people at your table. Grabbing a meal with friends is supposed to be fun, so actually enjoy it!
2. When you’re having a face-to-face conversation with one other person:
I’m ashamed to admit that I have a habit of checking my phone way too much while I’m in the middle of a conversation with someone. I end up missing half of what the other person is saying, which leads to long awkward pauses because I’m having to ask “What?” every other word. The problem is, what I’m doing is actually incredibly rude. What is the other person supposed to do while I’m staring at my phone? Have a conversation with herself? No. Because I should be working to break my bad habit and learn to put my phone away.
3. At a party:
I know, I know, lots of you are probably already disagreeing with me on this one but hear me out. Lots of people spend entire parties with their phones attached to their hands to text friends to make sure that the plan is to meet at Maggie’s, take pictures, edit and immediately post said pictures, etc. And it’s definitely understandable that you would check your phone every now and then, especially during those awkward moments when you are standing by yourself waiting for your best friend finish to flirting with the crush she’s been talking about for the past year.
But, you should be careful not to spend the entire night staring down at your screen because it can make you seem really unapproachable. It already takes a lot of courage for a guy to walk up and start a conversation with a pretty girl, let alone one who seems more interested in the surfing the internet than being at the party. So try to remember to put your phone away, smile, and be friendly. Who knows, maybe that cute guy in your biology class will finally come over and introduce himself.
I completely understand what’s it like to want to be on your phone all the time. Sometimes all I can think about trying to beat my high score on solitaire. But try to resist the urge to spend all your time on your phone when it comes at the cost of ignoring friends and seeming rude. You might even find that its kind of nice to take a break from the constant stream of texts and Snapchats that keep your phone buzzing.