I was on the train last week and when I got off at Back Bay I looked back to make sure I didn’t forget anything (like I always do) and what I saw stuck with me for some odd reason. The entire car holding about thirty people were on their phones. Not only that but it’s like their eyes were glued to them; thirty people, and not a single one of them was reading a book or taking a nap or looking out the window. I don’t mean to sound cliche but this sight was something that I have never really paid much attention to.
‘The Era of Technology’- that’s what we’re called, this generation. I never really paid much attention to it due to the fact that we were sort of born into it. Our parents and teachers all love to use the excuse of the fact that we’re addicted to social media, that teenagers like to ‘Instagram’ their every single move, when in reality it’s not true. This exaggeration might be a little stretched but I think some changes have to be made.
The cliche saying of ‘we are consumed by technology’ may be overused but it’s hard to argue against it when you see an entire car on a train glued to their phone. Obviously they aren’t going to be making conversation with a random stranger but what draws the line?
I am not anti-phone, I do prefer to write out my notes rather than take them on my laptop, but trust me I love my phone and laptop just as much as any other seventeen year old. But what I do find ironic is how relaxed I feel when I’m not attached to my phone. Sometimes my two hour practice is the one thing I look forward to solely because I don’t have to worry about constantly texting someone back or checking Snapchat every five minutes to see what people are doing.
I love using Instagram to see all the pictures my sister who’s traveling abroad in Spain posts, and find Facebook very convenient to talk to my family, so I know how addicting it is, but it’s sad when it’s come down to the fact that people are tweeting about how bored they are because everyone is in school and aren’t tweeting.
Coming from someone who is constantly stressed about things that need to get done, I have tried probably a hundred different methods of relaxing and concentrating on what I need to do. One method is simply putting away my phone. I love my friends, I love my family, but we all have things that need to get done, and I also know that they won’t hate me if my phone’s in the other room when I’m home and I just want to watch a movie and actually concentrate on it. I strongly recommend this method; it may seem cliche, but actually try to put your phone down. Don’t just turn it on silent but actually just put it away for a little the next time that you’re walking home and notice things that you wouldn’t usually. Taking a break can actually be relaxing sometimes. We all know that you can’t just take a break from everything on Earth, but if you walk home in silence rather than listen to music and on Twitter or sit on the train and look out of the window you might just remember that what you post on Snapchat isn’t the most important thing in your life.
