In a world where discovery is constantly at our fingertips, slowing down is a terrifying prospect. When walking down the street, through a restaurant, or past a group, the glow of smartphones illuminates a look of concentration or amusement, pasted on faces as each person struggles to keep up with the breakneck pace of emails, social media, and text messages.

If you slip for just a second, you are behind. Suddenly, you are being lapped by those who are constantly posting about their successful and fulfilling lives. Your inbox implodes with emails that require your immediate attention. A missed text message is a missed opportunity--for a joke, for comfort, for information. Tearing your eyes from the screen seems almost detrimental. At least it feels that way.

It’s not just phones that keep us chugging along. Due to our increased ability to gain information, we are a more efficient population. This begs us to use our increased leisure time to propel ourselves forward in some way or another--joining a new club, making new friends, catching up on the latest Netflix craze. We just can’t stop.

Our society seems to need constant entertainment. If we can’t find it in the world around us, we search for it in the well-lit world of the web. Simply sitting and thinking without some sort of stimulation like music, Facebook posts, or TV show seems unrealistic and unattainable, not to mention terrifying. We live in a world where being plugged in is a mandatory experience, and people who choose to tear themselves away are left behind.

I don’t want to be left behind, so I allow myself to become attached to screens.

I tell myself that my situation is different. I use my phone for work--it’s how I am contacted if I need to solve a crisis. It’s how I answer questions. It’s how I send out information. It’s how I connect with my teams. It’s essential to my education as well as my work.

But then I have to ask myself: how many times do I find myself scrolling through Instagram while listening to my friends’ problems? How often do I half-listen to a story because I am replying to an email? How often do I bring my phone charger to social events because I want the option to tune others out? How often do I ignore the people in front of my face in favor of connecting with others through pixels?

Answer: Too often.

I sacrifice interactions with real, live people in favor of connecting with those who choose not to be with me. Whenever I do that, I show everyone in the room that I have better things to do than converse with them. I tell them that my time is worth more than theirs. I show them that they mean less to me than cyberspace.

Is that a little harsh, considering the climate of society? Maybe. Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe I’m thinking an old-fashioned way--after all, social media is the way of the future. It has resurrected old friendships with a single #throwbackthursday or Timehop post. It has brought people (who never would have discovered their similarities otherwise) together. It has made long-distance friendships easier.

I have experienced all of those positives. I'm not denying the benefits of social media: it has given the world the gift of connection, and it has certainly changed the world with that gift.

But it would be ignorant to ignore the toll that being plugged in has taken on us. It is rare to see two people hold a conversation without one of them checking their phone. In our desperation to stay connected with the world, we have lost the ability to connect to each other.

Here is my challenge to you: slow down. Turn off your phone for a minute, an hour, a day, a week--whatever you can handle. Look people in the eye when you pass them; maybe even offer them a smile. Notice the flowers blooming along the sidewalk. Watch the clouds. Talk to people about anything and everything.