Photo by Shannon Hansen
This is the age of technology, everyone has their iPhone in-hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I’m guilty, too. I get wrapped up in a world that isn’t even real — a virtual reality that I believe does more harm than good. As one becomes increasingly enveloped in the sphere of the social media world, they isolate themselves from all that surrounds them in the present.
It seems that the text you just have to reply to, or the tweet you just have to favorite, become prioritized over the people and things that are right in front of you. And frankly, that’s not what life should be about.
I didn’t realize just how reliant I was on my phone until I left for my sophomore year to study abroad in Europe. Without a working phone on the weekends while I traveled, I realized just how much this technological revolution has skewed our views on what the present really is.
I saw that instead of looking down at a screen as I ambled along the busy sidewalks in cities all over Europe, I was now forced to look up — as cliched as it sounds — and be fully present to the world around me. My eyes surveying the architecture along narrow streets in the drizzling rain in Madrid, the smell of tapas and paella wafting through the air — I realize that every little piece of an experience is necessary in order to appreciate it to the fullest.
Forced to do the unthinkable in this day and age, by putting away my phone I began to absorb all that was before me without worrying about sharing it with the friends and acquaintances who most likely (wait for it) don’t even care. From the architectural wonders built centuries before I was born to the cultures that clash so clearly with my own, I noticed how vast the world really is.
Which brings me back to the point at hand: appreciating the present. Being home for winter break showed me two things in particular. The first is how grateful I am to have people in my life that made leaving California to come back to Europe so hard. The second is that the amount of time I waste on my phone when I don’t have to wait for Wi-Fi to use it is ridiculous. Having our eyes glued to a 3×5-inch screen for hours every day is not healthy. It removes us from the beauty of the present and what is happening right in front of us. It steals us away from the people we’re with and the uncharted world before us that we haven’t yet explored.
Phones were made for calling, and texting was created for the purpose of planning. But in the generation we live in, phones have become a lifeline to some false reality. They’re used for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, the occasional phone call, a myriad of texts — some more important than others — and of course the evil of all evils: Snapchat. Even abroad, I fell victim to the need to show all my friends on Snapchat just how incredible the cities I was visiting were via my Snapstory. And for what? Odds are, the majority just tapped through my story without a second thought. So if you really think about it, what was the point?
The point of all this is not to say that phones are never useful. They can be, in moderation. They allow us to keep in touch with the people we love most. But there’s a time and a place for phones and I believe that’s when we aren’t occupied elsewhere. These once-in-a-lifetime experiences and opportunities aren’t worth missing out on for a glowing little piece of metal.
More times than I can count, I’ve failed to enjoy a priceless moment while trying to get it recorded. I look back, and yeah, I have a fun Snapchat from the top of the Duomo in Florence, maybe a cute Instagram at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland — but I didn’t get to fully immerse myself in the experience. Of course it serves as a precious memory that I tuck into my heart, and I’m not saying that we should all stop taking photos of the moments that are important to us — but I’ve noticed that sometimes I don’t get to enjoy what’s right in front of me due to my quest to get it documented for the future.
So put the phone away and let the world engulf you. Open your eyes and ears to new moments and fresh experiences. It’s the least we can do in the limited number of days we’ve been given on this beautiful earth.
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Follow Shannon Hansen on Twitter: @shannnonhansen
