Cell phones and social networking sites have become a key role in our everyday lives. We are always checking our texts, facebooks, emails, messages, twitters, instagram, and all the social networking out there. The one thing these all have in common is that they don’t require any social contact. All people need is a cell phone and they have social networking at their disposal.

But the problem is, our generation of tech users are glued to these devices. We don’t engage in actual conversations as often as we should be. Instead, we rely on our phones and computers to deliver messages to friends because it is “more convenient” to text rather than to talk on the phone. Our generation is missing out on key moments to become socially adequate in society. In one night, I send countless emails, texts, and facebook messages. In doing that, I am not practicing social skills like facial expression, body language, eye contact, and human interaction. When the day comes for me to go out into the real world and actually need to meet with adults, I probably won’t be able to live up to the level our parents did. That’s why we need to distance ourselves from all these devices and engage in face-to-face conversations.  In order to become adequate in social contact, we need to spend less time on our phones and computers (which is an almost impossible task) and more time interacting with actual people.

We are all entirely dependent on these devices and go insane when we have to go an hour without checking our inboxes. When we leave our phones in the car, or leave the house without checking that important email, we freak out because we can’t instantly do something about it. Being available 24/7 isn’t always a good thing because we never give ourselves a rest and always do things right away. Having all of this social networking and texts being accessed at any moment never allows for a breathing period.  We attach our lives to the technology given to us, and put more pressure on ourselves to respond in a timely manner (which is often within the hour) since we have the ability to check our phones and computers at any given moment.

These devices have their benefits, but the cons are heavily weighted. We subject ourselves to a cell phone, and we become apart of it. We don’t talk to people as much as we could because we can just send an email or text, which makes us all always available. In order to become more social and emotional, we need to create space between ourselves, and the social media. They dominate our lives, and a piece of equipment shouldn’t be doing that. Our lives should actually be focused on people, and not the tool doing the work for us.