On a Sunday night, during The Sleepless Summer Nights Tour, I witnessed something very interesting. The lead singer of The Millenium asked the crowd to ‘live like a human’ for the band’s last two songs. He explained he wanted everyone to put their phones away for the last set of songs. To live in the moment and not let social media take control. He asked that everyone in that moment only share the celebration of the last two songs with the people they came here with.
This request stuck with me for several days. I started to notice how much people depend on their phones. How they don’t talk to the people in front of them. Instead, their noses are stuck to their screens. They are so absorbed in the world that’s occurring inside of their devices that they forget of the events that are unfolding right in front of their eyes.
After several days of being aware of this, it seemed like almost everyone was a robot. They showed no emotions to their surroundings, and all were doing the same thing – noses pointed and eyes glued to their screens, laughing at a joke that was ‘said’ but never verbally spoken. They were not aware of the people that were in line with them at the coffee shop. Or the people they originally made plans with that were physically there.
That’s not how humans were meant to live. They were meant to communicate and interact with each other physically. Not closed off to the people around them. This doesn’t mean that absolutely no screen time is allowed. Just limit it. For instance, my best friend and I have instilled a rule: no phone usage at the table – first one to grab their phone picks up the bill. This allows you to do what you were initially there to do: to spend time with the people you meant to spend time with.
Technology was created to help us create and build relationships. But if we let it, it can hinder the relationships right in front of us. So let’s start ‘living like humans’ and start focusing on the people right in front of us. Set some time away from your phone for family and friends because they are just as real as the people in the display.
