I attended a concert recently with a family member. She was all about seeing the artist, however, my biggest irritation with this was her not being able to put down her phone. She had to have photographs to show her friends, etc. We are in a crowded arena, crammed like sardines as people who all paid a ridiculous amount of money to see this band. How many people were really there, though?

Of course, I am guilty of pulling out my phone to record Maroon 5's latest hit, but I made sure to put the device away and experience the liveliness of the event. How can you relive the event in your mind, replaying your favorite hits and how you felt when Adam Levine jumped around on stage when you were too busy trying to capture the moment in a failed haze of blurry images?

Who am I to be saying this? I’m a college sophomore whose phone is glued to my face on most occasions, but I have been enlightened to change this. However, it is almost crucial to be connected to the media in modern society, especially college students. From social media to connecting with professors via email, technology is everywhere.

After I graduated high school, I went on an excursion to Costa Rica with my high school biology club. Seeing how it was my first time traveling to a new country, I’d be facing a new culture of life and beautiful landscapes and sights that could only really be experienced in person. My dad bid me away with some advice, “Make sure to live outside the camera.”

What did this mean exactly? Well, it means the most obvious thing. Take pictures and capture your experience by all means, but do not forget to live. The best memories are not going to be captured by a digital recording device, but instead by your mind. When I was in Central America, I didn’t do too good a job at this, snapping pictures with the latest iPhone, sending them to my family back in the States as if it were some magical wonderland that would be disappearing from the face of the Earth in the next few days.

And as I reflect on it, I do cringe a little bit. I was lucky enough though that I did keep this thought in the back of my head. Though I took one too many snapshots, I remember what it feels like to see a rainbow hit directly in between two mountains. Or the way this overly large bus felt driving around a thin path heading up a tall mountain to get to a village above the clouds. These memories that I could describe to anyone on the pages of a journal from the way it played in my head.

As I look back now on this experience, I wish I had more memories like the ones I do. Of course, I have all the memories, but the ones that are really there? The ones where I was not distracted by the phone screen.

Because of this, I am trying my hardest to not need my phone so much. Of course, in modern society it is crucial to be connected to the internet in some form.

Over the summer, I went to Italy. My boyfriend and I have a funny tradition when we travel to get ice cream, find a bench or a seat near a monument, and just chat about it. Whether it be the White House with frozen yogurt or in this case, the Trevi fountain with gelato, I found no urge to pull my phone out and take a photograph. The moment was real and that was all that we needed.

While it's okay to take photos to have a direct visual of the moment, it is also crucial to set the phone down, breathe a little, and realize where you are at or what you are experiencing.