Imagine hitting the end of your life and reflecting on everything that you have done throughout your life. Then, imagine the only thing you can remember is what happened on your phone. That one time you reached 100 likes on your Instagram picture, or that time your tweet got retweeted by an account with over a thousand followers. You don’t remember having a conversation with your mom, or spending time with your family before they passed away. This is the result of constantly spending time on a cell phone.

We are often are taught to just turn the other cheek when we see something awkward or something we don’t want to see. Whenever people pass us in the street, we just ignore them. If we see a homeless person, we just ignore them and go back to our own little worlds. Can this affect how humans interact with each other?

Whether people are going out to dinner or simply sitting in a car, most people have their phones out and are constantly checking social media sites or texting somebody. People no longer know how to communicate without their phones in front of them. Many families even institute “no phone rules” in order to try and get children to interact with their families.

Now, even commercials are recognizing the discord among kids and their family members. Commercials represent grandparents being left out because they don’t have cell phones. Now, teenagers are more focused on their phones than spending time with their grandparents.

Phones continue to leave a negative impact on society. Young children now even have tablets in order to keep them entertained during dinner or just around the house. Children used to run outside and play with sticks, and now children are begging for phones and want to play games.

People no longer appreciate things when getting immediate results. We live in a culture where everything is about yourself. The second you want something, you can google it and get the answer. No one has patience to wait for a response if it takes more than a few moments.

The accepted narcissism that has been widely accepted by society is out of hand. People are so narcissistic that all people want to do is boast about their lives on social media. They are constantly taking selfies and posting about their vacations on social media. This can even lead to tension between relationships. More often than not, people try to one up each other and make each other seem better than everyone else. People are more focused on how many followers and likes they get on a photo rather than having a conversation with a friend or family member.

Technology may be slowly picking away at the little social skills we have left; however, technology can create more positive outlooks on education. Schools are more technology-based making it easier to complete assignments and turn in assignments online. Students can constantly check their grades and email teachers whenever they’re having trouble.

In times of need, it’s also easier to text somebody than wait to see them in person. Texting is easy to get a thought off of your mind to the person you need to before you forget it. Texting makes it easier to have quick conversations with others in order to get a task completed.

The most important thing is that your phone allows you to keep in touch with other people and other cultures. We can visit social media to see how other cultures act and celebrate. We can connect with people all over the world. Technology can connect us and be used to our benefit, it just depends on how you use it; because with great power, comes great responsibility.