By Nina Leah Josie Boretz

At around 10:30 this morning I received a strange text message from my mom that read “I’m weighing you from my new I phone” and two seconds later “That is I’m writing you from my new iPhone 4. J” Two hours later my mom and step dad came home, iPhones in tow, to proudly show off their brand new purchases. “See, we’re just as savvy as you now.” The rest of the day my mom was glued to her phone constantly interrupting my quality reading time of Cosmopolitan to ask me how to work WiFi, change her background or how to take a picture (“Why do I see myself and not the dog?”) and to show her how Google maps works. As I looked around my house I noticed that instead of talking to each other, which we rarely get to do since I’m usually away at school, we were all involved in our individual computers or phones. My younger brother had his headphones in, watching YouTube videos and playing games, my mom was experimenting with different ringtones and my step dad was busy picking out iPhone cases on Amazon.

Our generation gets a reputation for always being plugged in. Many of us have Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts that we access with handheld computers like the iPhone and iPad. Everything comes to us with a touch of a button. Technology has changed society drastically. It has changed how we communicate, how we apply for jobs, how we read, how we shop, how we get the news, and how we navigate trips and follow directions. It’s even changed how we date and meet other people. I’m constantly reading articles that cite the benefits and detriments that have developed because of our new technology-based way of life, how to use it to our advantage and when to do things the “old fashion” way.

Seeing my parents getting new iPhones and getting so excited and involved with it, even going as far as discreetly playing with them under the table while we were out at a nice dinner, made me realize that we might have taken it a little too far. I’ve read several stories about people reconnecting during hurricane Sandy, while there was no electricity to power their technological dependency. When we are unable to be connected to the entire world, we talk to each other and are brought back to what is in the present in front of us. I suggest that we all take a few hours to take a break from all that technological noise and talk to the people that are right in front of us, play a board game with your little brother, go for a walk with your mom, or play a game of tennis with your friends. Technology is great to cut corners and enables us to stretch our reach beyond what we ever could before, but it is also a giant distraction from life passing by. “Life is what happens when you’re too busy tweeting”. I certainly will make an effort to unplug and tune in.