“Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted.” –Susan Sontag

I think we can all relate to this particular quote. I was at a country music concert some time ago and to this day I still don’t know who the singer was or what he looked like. Two reasons: 1. I’m not a big country music fan. 2. Everybody around me in the crowd was not only way taller than me but to make matters worse, their gigantic arms were high up in the air with all their phones. It was a sea of iPhones and Androids.

Now a days, anything we do, whether it be concerts or a night out with friends we have this need to document it and share on social media. People are so quick to show others how much fun and glamorous their lives are, but are you really having fun?  A lot of us are too busy trying to capture the moment rather than live it.

I do it too. I also find myself spending minutes (sometimes hours) just scrolling through social media. It’s addicting. Especially since we have this type of information right at our fingertips. Seriously, when are we ever away from our cell phones for more than just a few minutes? With all these apps and free Wi-Fi provided just about anywhere you go, it’s hard not to pull it out and get sucked in to the internet world. And with all these apps, it has become our main source for everything from communication and dating to navigation, even our alarm clocks!! There are times when I want to shut my phone off before I go to sleep but then I remember it’s my alarm clock for work the next morning. And if I don’t go then I don’t get paid.

I’ve been reading articles on being mindful and unplugging from technology and how people have become more aware of their present moment when they are not trying to document it. And when you think about it, we must spend a lot of our free time scrolling on different types of social media when we could be reading a book (a real one) or going out or what have you. It’s a challenge I was skeptical to take because I am a full time student and I also work full time at my job, so breaking away completely from all forms of technology is a little too crazy. But breaking away from my cellphone when I don’t need it is something I definitely want to try, especially for those of us who are really busy all the time and feel like we can’t break away from it cause we need it to communicate.  I want to try it out for a few days out of each week and hopefully be able to go longer as we progress through the semester. I want to break away from that little screen in the palm of my hand that takes up so much of my free time. By doing this, I want to rely on my phone less and less for things like maybe helping out that guy who sells newspapers at the side of road by buying one and actually reading it or hitting a real snooze button in the mornings. I want to see how addicted I or we have really become and the steps we can do to overcome that.