My mom once told me that back in the olden days, people used to actually talk to their friends when they saw each other in the halls!

Nowadays, walking through the halls of Algonquin, what do you see? People with headphones in, scrolling through their feeds, responding to Snapchats and checking their texts. We are all constantly on our phones.

Even just walking down the hall, we feel the need to stare down at our screens rather than actually looking up at people and participating in face to face communication. In times of  awkward silence and not knowing anyone, we all just go into our own bubbles and turn to our phones- which needs to stop.

After talking to some students around school, it appears they spend approximately seven hours a day on their phones. That’s seven hours of not talking, of blocking out the world, and of straining their eyes.

If everyone would put down their phones more, there would be much more talking amongst students and kids would have better social skills.

When hanging out with someone nowadays, what most commonly goes down is us sitting around on the couch together and going on our phones. Think about how annoying that is for the person we are actually with. If we are on our phones the whole time, talking to other people, it makes that person feel that you do not actually want to be there.

While people use their phones for communicating with others, I don’t think someone needs to see a Snapchat of ourselves every five minutes when we’re going to see them next period. Leave a little mystery.

We all need to put the phone down, look up, and enjoy life. Stop posting everything and just live in the moment.