Energy is the foundation of everything. Without it, life could not be sustained, machinery would not be a reality, the world as we know it would cease to exist. This is especially true in today’s day and age. We, as the modern human race, live life glued to our cellphones. Odds are, in fact, you’re reading this article on one right now; and just as we require a certain amount of energy to survive, our phones are no different. When all is said and done though, I can’t help but pose a single question. How much energy does it take to keep up on the daily events of the world?

This age of social media is perplexing. In many ways it brings humanity closer together, and yet, in just as many ways, it is so clearly tearing us all apart. We judge ourselves based on the quality of the posts we make on the internet, but what is it all for? Walking down the street or sitting at a table with my closest friends I am constantly assaulted with the same phenomenon of people bent over their phones desperately trying to keep up.

In 1997 a newspaper column was published by Mary Schmich bearing the headline “Advice, like youth, probably wasted on the young.” In the column she dispensed some of the most important and haunting advice I have ever heard in my life, one piece being that “the race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.” People obsessing over maintaining their link in the ever expanding web are missing the point. They are the ones missing out on the ride, fixating on trying to keep up with others, and too blind to see that they are in the race alone. None of it matters.

This time last week I had just finished nine days with my phone on airplane mode. It was only on airplane mode to preserve the battery, I was in the mountains without a signal. I can never begin to explain the liberating feeling of not checking the phone for the next text or Facebook update. To use the phone only as an alarm clock allowed me to form real connections. Sometimes the false ones formed on social media are clever, but they can never be truly substituted for the real thing. An internet relationship with a person will never be less than counterfeit.

I charged my phone twice last week, one on Sunday the day I went into airplane mode, and again on Thursday. That is how long the energy in a phone can survive without the constant barrage of information and nonsense assaulting it. The human mind is no different than that phone. In many ways it is probably more delicate, easier to drain of energy. Consider for a moment what you could do if you stopped looking at everyone else and started looking at yourself. More than that, imagine if you just sat down and looked at the sky. I challenge you to be bold enough.