No, please do not slide into my DM’s. Thank you very much.

We are in the age of technological communication. We fall victim to the like buttons and the retweets and the pin boards alike. With such a vast variety of communication available to us at our fingertips – literally – it’s incredibly simple to spend our days “talking” to our friends and family from the barrier of a computer or cell phone screen, instead of actually making the effort to meet up with them in person.

We have a whole cyber world available to us at the click of a button, and we have grown accustomed to pressing “send,” instead of taking part in a physical, face-to-face interaction with others.

It has gotten to a point where even talking on the phone has become a burden to us. I know numerous people my age who feel a sense of social anxiety when having to schedule an appointment over the phone. This is simply ridiculous.

It’s no secret that the communication skills of our generation are diminishing due to our lack of experiential practice. Our written communication skills are decreasing due to autocorrect, the incessant use of acronyms and slang words, and the decreasing need to physically write pen-to-paper. Our verbal communication skills are decreasing as well, at maybe an even more alarming rate, due to the ever-rising popularity of Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, iMessage, Twitter, Pinterest… The list goes on and on. New apps are being created everyday and with each swipe on a cell phone, we are losing more and more of our interaction with the outside world. We no longer feel the need to have a continuous, fluid conversation with someone anymore. Why would we, when we can just send a text or a Snap instead?

It is crucial for us as a whole to regain our abilities in the field of communication. It’s time we stop focusing on how to properly word a Tinder bio and start focusing on how to properly word a formal proposal letter instead. It is time we stop focusing on our computerized, exaggerated lives and start focusing on our real lives that we have to live everyday. Let’s face it, which one is going to help us more in the long run?

As much as technological advances have helped us, and will continue to help us in the future, at this rate it is beneficial for us to take a step back in terms of technology. Let’s go back to a time when we didn’t feel compelled to gain a certain amount of likes on a picture or rack up more followers than our peers. Let’s go back to a time when we felt comfortable talking on the phone and it didn’t feel strange spending time with someone in person. Let’s go back to a time when we communicated on a more personal level. Let’s go back to a time when we lived outside of computer and cell phone screens. Let’s go back to a time when we lived.

The likes can wait.