Facebook has been around since 2004. iPhones have been around since 2007, and since then has come Instagram, TikTok, Reddit etc. Anyone born after 2010 will never understand life without smartphones. 

The average teen spends about seven hours a day on social media and texting. 19% of kids get their first phone at the age of eight, according to allforkids.org.  As far as most people know, if it’s not on the internet it doesn’t exist. Phones have become an important part of our lives and yet they seem to be taking over our lives at the same time. It has gotten to the point that it’s not only phones, but iPads, computers, and even things like playstations and xboxes.   

To understand the importance of a picture is one thing but when teens and kids start matching their outfits and doing their makeup just for one picture is nonsense. 

This generation needs to understand when to put down the phone and take a minute to look around. Living in the moment isn’t just about taking pictures of what is around you, it is about making memories that you will remember forever. Though having a picture is nice, that’s not all that matters.

I talked about it recently with sophomore Lee Strout.

“On a family trip, I was enjoying the sunset and I looked over to see my family all on their phones.”

Phones are even the cause of 1.6 million car crashes each year. One out of every four crashes in the United States are caused by texting during driving. Texting while driving increases your chances of getting into an accident by six times. As a teen your chances are increased by 10 when you text while driving. This leads to 390,000 injuries each year, according to edgarsnyder.com.

It has gotten to the point where we spend so much time on our phones, that people are changing themselves to look like that one girl on Instagram. Amongst young women, “I need to stop eating so I can become skinny” and “I should cut my hair so I look like her” are extremely common. It even extends to “If I do this, then I will be popular.” We shouldn’t have to change ourselves because social media told us to.

Our generation needs to understand that the world is bigger than the screens in our pockets. As Dr. Seuss said, “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” So in the end just remember to take a minute, put down your phones, look around, and enjoy the moment.