We need to tune out. Tune out of the technology that is constantly surrounding us. Turn off our devices and electronics and walk outside. We need to learn the importance of nature and reconnect with ourselves through the process. We need to recognize the beauty in the fresh grass and new leaves growing on the trees. The warm sunshine that warms deep down into our bones. The new flowers blooming, filling the world with color.

We need to take our faces out of our phones and disconnect from all the social media. Stop thinking about what we can post to let the world know what we are “doing." Stop thinking about the next tweet, the next photo, the next update. Put your phone down and live in the moment. Stop thinking about how great the view on top of the mountain would be as an Instagram post -- how many likes you would receive.

Stop living to please others; live for yourself. Live for the beauty of the view, the accomplishment of hiking to the top. Live for the knowledge of how the sand feels between your toes and how the waves crash onto each other. And put your phone down. Put the social media away. Put the judgement and approval of others behind you and live for yourself. Live for the moment and live for the times with the people that are right beside you and not the ones through a screen.

I am not saying that technology is bad and we need to do away with it because it is truly a great thing. It helps us stay in contact with people from our past and countries away. It helps us express, learn and go farther than we ever have before. But it is good in moderation which we are not doing now. We are using it to express our every thought, our every emotion. We use it to make friends and gain acceptance. We use it to reassure ourselves that what we are doing is “good enough” for today’s society.

We do not need this. Social media and technology take away from the simple joys of life, the special moments that you only need to share with the people beside you. The phrase “Pics or it didn’t happen,” has plagued our generation into believing we need to share and prove everything we have done. You do not need to live to please or to prove yourself to everyone. Live for yourself and live for the beauty of the moment. Happiness will begin when you put technology down.