As the last final days of school wrapped up, I came more and more aware of how much I did not want to be reaching out to my friends to say goodbye. Its not just that Im terrible at them, but its the fact that I kept thinking well, I can just send them a text message later and that will be just as good, right?

Wrong, I knew that they most definitely would not be okay with me leaving without a proper goodbye face to face and deep down I had known that. Im also quick to be someone who will have a very serious conversation through texting than rather face to face. I do this because Im a chicken, and the technology of today has made it all too easy for me to hide behind.

The truth of the matter is that technology has made it very easy for us to cower behind. We rarely see people for who they are, and we tend to leave it to Twitter and Instagram to tell us who people really are. Its also completely ruined our people skills, for example "the shopping experience" as my mom calls it has all been but ruined.

I was out shopping with my mom the other day and as we reached the cash register, there was about ten people in line and only one person working behind the counter. What was even worse was that throughout our whole time there, not one person came up to us asking if we needed help and more so I saw plenty of customers get tossed to the side as if their problems were no big deal.

It was my mom who pointed out the fact that the entire shopping experience was gone, no one helped and no one really cared about making a sale. Bringing us both to the conclusion that if you know your sizes you really don't ever need to come to the store to buy items, you can do it all from online. Considering the experience is about the same.

Technology has no doubt given us so much to be thankful for, but when it comes to socializing and remembering that there are emotions outside of the screen we have definitely taken some steps back. So maybe this holiday you can step back from your phone and remember that theres more to see than whats on your instagram feed.