Your phone is one of the reasons you get through your day so fast. Its the reason you are able to feel comfortable in a dangerous place knowing that help is but three numbers away. However, To the average millennial, the phone is something more. Earlier in the 80’s and 90’s (for example) the phone did only two things. Call and text. Now, being that the internet is so popular and everyone HAS to know what other people are doing in their life rather than focusing on their own, we come to a rather difficult conflict. Instead of finding interest in the surroundings we are inhabited in, we stray off course to a digital, rather organized, jungle. The problem with cell phones today are that it can (potentially and usually does) eliminate human interaction as well as the cognizance of the outside world, it creates laziness and a lack of intelligence (to some degree) as well as forming a barrier from the social norm we compare ourselves to which is life back then.

Ohhh life back then. How can we not just go back and enjoy a simpler time? That might not be what you want. We belong no where but now. And its not that we aren't “simple” enough because we never were. Its how we are using our time and how we are adapting to what is provided for us. We used to have to go to the library and find something out. That took effort. However, now I have literally any answer to anything at the tip of my fingertips! THATS A MIRACLE! I can call anyone, anywhere, at anytime. thats pretty amazing. However, we humans pick up on patterns very quickly, and we have been exposed to this new age of technology for long enough to develop the mindset which says “Ohh, i don't have to put any effort into anything because i have it all right here. Why would i go learn new things and be productive if i have it all at my fingertips” well maybe thats not exactly word for word what we tell ourselves because we lie to ourselves too much. Point being that since we posses these phones, that doesn't mean we can stop exploring and doing amazing things and learn hands on. Because if we do stop going out, we will have a wave of lazy, insipid, and hollow people.

Human interaction is the biggest necessity among humans. Even if you think your phone is more important, its not. The life span of a human that has no interaction is diminished as much as 45% in someone lacking social contact compared to one who is the opposite. Why do you think prisoners fear being thrown in solitary confinement? They would rather spend time with criminals than be alone, and people today are in a solitary confinement as well. Its just a lot different of an isolation. They are given a phone in which they bury themselves in a room to tinker with it and gather likes and shares to become more “popular”. How ridiculous is that? Are you serous? people like the human interaction. But they like it in a controlled environment where they can create any identity for themselves to only display the paradigm of who they perceive to be. Thats about as sad as 9/11. Go out and get some friends. Your phone doesn't count. The other day I was on my break at work reading when I saw a daughter and father eating together. Sadly, eating was about the extent of it. There was no talking. They both had phones out DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF EACH OTHER. The only conversation they were having was the sound of the junk food tossing in their mouths. After that, the dad got up and just walked out without even saying a thing. she followed him and they drove off. That was an example of the future. Isn't it safe to say that just like cigarettes (which we thought had no negative effect, ended up killing people after it was consumed for long enough) phones will soon reap the consequences? That doesn't mean death but its a relatively new invention in which we are seeing side effects for. Soon we might uncover more than we want to see…

Back then, the socially correct thing to do when you entered a house or any room for that matter was to say “hello”, a common, genuine, sincere comment that had little meaning but had lots of respect behind it. Now, If we have the confidence, we say “Do you know where the outlet is?” Isn't it funny just how shy we are nowadays? It wasn't more than 50 years ago that people knew their neighbors like the back of their hand. Now we don't even wave at them. What causes all of this? Not just a phone but just the overall busyness of people. Phones teach us to be rather the opposite of what you think. You may feel free to say whatever over text cause you don't have to deal with the response of that person until you choose too. Thats why people are so shy in conversations. Not only are people shy because of that, but because they're scared that people might find out that they false advertised themselves on the internet as we discussed earlier. They fear that expressing their true selves will display them as a fraud as if we use the internet and phones to establish a baseline for how people really are. So be careful how often you use your phone. You might just end up getting metaphorically sued for false advertisement.

In conclusion, I don't think us humans should abandon phones, in fact we should embrace them. However, we have hit an all time low with phones. We need to learn how to distance reality from the digital jungle. Once we master the skill of self control, we will master our temptation of using a phone. Self control is the hardest quality to obtain for humans in my opinion, so getting people to put the phone down is going to be just as hard if not WAY HARDER that getting people to quit cigarettes. The reason for this is because to see ads for phone use, you must have a phone! Our society is relying on phones way too much. The only thing we can do is hope that the cave men and women who use their phones too much realize it. The ones who already are enlightened are lucky. Including me and hopefully you too.