PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY: CADY HERRING
A recent study by mobileinsurance.com has revealed that the average human spends 3.9 years on his or her phone.
If you’re lucky, it takes four years to get an undergraduate degree. The Civil War lasted four years. Four years ago, Lebron left the Cavaliers. A lot can happen in four years.
Unfortunately, we choose to spend this time pressing buttons and communicating with people who probably won’t be in our lives for four years. We sit at a table for dinner, and we are unable to have a conversation without the constant presence of our telephones.
Every instant of our life must be tweeted, insta’d, snapchatted, all because we need to feel connected with all two-thousand of our followers — yet we feel no need to invest as much time updating the individuals sitting across the table from us. Our life is defined by the number of likes/comments/retweets we get, and God forbid someone unfollows or unfriends us.
If we walk into a room and know no one, immediately, we pretend to be having a deep conversation on our phones. The comfort that we are supposed to find in humans is now satisfied through our smart phone.
It’s ironic, isn’t it?
The technological changes made to advance the human race has only hindered its ability to communicate with one another. Our social media sites are not very “social” because when we do have the opportunity to socialize and interact with one another in person, we choose to be on social media instead.
The same person’s pictures who you were liking last night is the same person you shared an awkward “pretend to be on the phone elevator moment” with 30 seconds ago. 30 seconds that just added to that 3.9 years.
I missed the winning touchdown of the Alabama game because I was too busy trying to Instagram myself.
Why?
Obviously, because if you didn’t take a picture, you weren’t there.
We miss so many moments because we are too busy trying to capture and share the moments digitally. I wonder how many potential relationships or friendships walk by us, but we never notice because we never look up.
Better yet, how many relationships have we destroyed because of our inability to disconnect from social media?
You know we have to check his/her Snapchat best friend, and if it isn’t us?
Snip Snip. Cut them off.
We probably spend more time in the “following” section on Instagram than viewing people’s actual posts. Because if he likes one more of her pictures, then I’m going off — and then after you text him and go off on him, you’ve probably just added 2 hours to that 3.9 years.
Two hours wasted on someone who isn’t going to last 3.9 years in your life.
Two hours that could have been used attacking your dreams.
Two nonredeemable hours that were used staring at a screen.
Rachel Granger is an international studies major from Pearl.
