LOOK UP

Are cell phones the new distraction?

OK...here it goes...oh wait, before I get started I should warn you that I am very passionate about this topic. Alright, now we can carry on! 

I'll be the first to admit it! My phone is my biggest distraction. It is my excuse for being so behind in school when doing TA interviews, of course it is an honest excuse. Then, my TA will get into the science of phones and how chemicals cause you be attracted to your phone, or something like that...I'm no expert! My TA will go on to talk about how he always sees people on their phones. THEY WON'T LOOK UP.  That my friends, is the problem. 

The fact that people rarely look up from their phones causes a lot of people to be less social. I don't have enough fingers to count the amount of times that I've been to a party or social gathering and people were on their phones instead of communicating. The funny part about these situation is that more than half the people who were on their phones were on social media... oh the irony! Social media is made for us to communicate with others around the world using our phones, tablets, and laptops. Unfortunately, in many cases these networks are causing people to be less social.  Here's what a typical party looks like these days:

Yes, I am at fault for this too. I probably resemble the guy on the far right of the picture; acting as if he is completely engaged on what is on his phone screen but really he is thinking of something to say. Or maybe he is searching conversation starters online. This is the sad truth for many of us. Thanks to our phones this generation is less social than the last. Even kids are now using phones; my little cousin was two when he got an iPad, he'll probably get a phone at the age of 6. Kids these days are learning how to Google something when they should be learning how to ride a bike. It is so rare to see kids playing outside with their friends. For example, today I saw a bunch of little boys having a water gun fight and it was honestly surprising and it's not because the weather wasn't warm enough for a water gun fight but it was because i haven't seen kids playing outside in what feels like 2 decades... and I'm only 15.

A couple of years ago this YouTube video went viral, in which talked about the fact that people are always on their phones and should look up. The video is described as a spoken word film for an online generation. Here is the video:

Although, this video went viral, I haven't seen any changes in regards to people looking up from their phones. So it is clear that there needs to be more done than just a video to raise awareness about this lack of socializing.

I find that many of my relationships have changed, because of fact that people never look up from their phones anymore. This leads me to have less conversations with people like my parents, friends, and teachers. I think this because because we are always on our phones we have talk less and when we do talk the conversations aren't deep or beneficial to the growth of our relationships. In addition, because we don't talk as much as before we aren't as close as we used to be. Which has altered our relationships for the worst.

There are somethings that I could do to sure these relationships aren't hindered by the constant use of social media devices. For example, I could secretly unplug the cable from the modem to the router so the WiFi stops working allowing my family and friends to get off of social media and spend quality time with me. I could also just talk to them about the fact that social media is affecting our relationships and we can then initiate quality time together.

As for phones in the classroom, I think it is important to have such devices in school. I know that for me, I am constantly on my phone researching for different assignments. So I think phones should  continued to be allowed at school. Of course if the use of phones get out of hand, like being used for things other than work

then phones can be confiscated for the rest of the school day. In addition, school administrators could enforce some rules and regulations that could be made to ensure that students are not on their phone for purposes other than their work and do not detrimentally affect the students within their school. An example of a rule they could use is to only use phones for purposes other than for school work during breaks at school. They could enforce this rule with a punishment is caught using their phone for purposes other than work. The school board could also block students for using social media apps like Twitter and Instagram like they did with SnapChat to ensure these networks aren't being used at school.