Look Up!

People say to enjoy life, and live in the moment. My question is how can you truly enjoy the moments in life if you never pay attention to them? Have you ever attended an outing with your friends, and their faces were gleaming with brightness the majority of the time? Not because they were simply enjoying themselves at the gathering, or were just told a funny joke. The culprit was actually unmasked to be the bright screens of their cell phones highlighting their faces.

Did you consider that outing pleasant? Today, people are practically married to their handheld devices, always responding to its needs when it calls them. Text messages, updating social media profiles and snapping a selfie or two has become the main tasks for these devices.

Also, thanks to social media, as human beings, we have become more connected than ever. Or have we? Through a screen definitely, but when it comes to face to face communication, as a society, the connection is slowly deteriorating.

When local Kent State students were asked about their feelings on competing with their friends phones for their friends attention while on a social get together, the answers were truly eye opening.

“It makes me frustrated because you are trying to have a conversation with someone, and they’re not paying attention” said Brenden Ceoender, a freshman Digital Media Production major.

Another student, Natalie Hannah, an interior design major said, “It’s kind of annoying, but I do it too.” When further explaining what makes her feel more comfortable when she is in that type of situation, she stated “So often times when my friends take their phones out when we’re all hanging out, I feel like I have to take mine out, so I can like not be bored.”

A study conducted on college students at Elon University surveyed students about the effects of technology, face to face communication and revealed intriguing results. One question in the survey asked students to rate the statement “It bothers me when my friends or family use technology while spending time with me” on a scale from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.”

The results showed 74 percent of students either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, with only a six percent who disagreed, and 20 percent undecided. Another question with shocking results asked students on whether they believed that the presence of technology while spending time with others, affects face to face communication negatively.

The results showed 92 percent of students agreed, one percent did not and seven percent were undecided. In conclusion, this study is a pure example that human beings are practically under the thrall of their cellular devices.

We need to break free, and look up from our phones. We should contribute more to communicating with the people who take time to physically be next to us rather than the ones behind our screens. If we fail to do so, the quality of our relationships with each other will decrease as it affects us negatively.

Enjoy and live in the moment, and who knows? A flying saucer could fly past the night sky while you’re on an outing with your friends, and you don’t want to be the person who missed it because your eyes were glued to the screen of a phone.

The Effect of Technology on Face-to-Face Communication by Emily Drago — 13 (n.d.): n. pag. Web.