In today’s society it isn’t uncommon to see a small child walking around with a cell phone in their hand. And while I understand that the world has changed even in the last ten to fifteen years, I can’t help but find it ridiculous that these kids have iPhones as their first phones when I had to suffer through a ‘Firefly’ phone and a flip phone as my first few phones.

So not only are these kids getting phones when they are like 8 years old, but they get smart phones? Whatever happened to going to the Front Office when you had to call your parents?

The worst part is these kids aren’t paying for their own new phones and yet they have nicer phones than most college students I know who pay their own way.

I think it’s absurd that these kids have been handed iPhone 6s’ and I’m sitting here figuring out how I’m going to afford to upgrade my 5s when it finally dies.

The way our society is moving forward is ultimately going in a direction that is going to be detrimental to the psychological and interactional growth of these kids. These kids are constantly glued to their screens, whether it be their phone, tablet or video games.

They rarely have to interact in person with their friends because that’s why they have Snapchat. And when they are together they just sit separately on their phones in the same room. They don’t even have to talk to each other on the bus because they’re busy texting their friend on another bus.

I get frustrated when I see people my own age not putting their phone down to enjoy a moment, even though I too am slightly guilty of being overly involved with my phone, but I know where these kids are learning it from. They learn it from seeing mom answering emails for work on their phone at dinner. They learn it from their older sister Snapchatting during family movie night. Whatever happened to being in the moment?!

We are the example these kids see every day. And we are setting a terrible one by constantly having our phones glued to our faces. We set a dreadful example by handing the toddler our phone to just to keep them quiet.

Whatever happened to handing a kid a book and having them read for fun? Whatever happened to handing them a coloring book and crayons?

I’m excruciatingly picky about the gifts I give to my younger cousins and siblings because I don’t want to encourage them having their phone glued to their faces. I buy educational gifts or cute outfits or something that isn’t technology related. No matter how many times they ask for a new video game or an iTunes gift card, I refuse to give in to the adolescent technological culture of this society.