Albert Einstein once said that his biggest fear was that technology would surpass all human interaction. I am afraid to admit that he may not have been too far off. It is a known fact that those of the millennial generation are physically, emotionally, and mentally attached to the small communication devices resting in their pockets. Whenever they are taken from us, we find ourselves completely lost and completely out of touch. So what do we do? I had to answer this question myself and logged my experience doing so.

It was odd. As soon as my cellphone left my possession, I felt a genuine ache in my chest and throughout the day, I felt random ghost vibrations that weren’t there. As pathetic as it sounds, I contemplated the true meaning of life without social media and it put me in a bad mood, whenever I thought about not having it for the week. Feeling defeated with “nothing to do”, I began subduing myself to random activities, such as counting the seven rows of forty-eight lights hanging from the ceiling of the gymnasium or the ten rows of bleachers and eating more concession stand food than I should have. One thing I noticed was how many people were on their phones. In the row of bleachers directly in front of me sat a family of 4 adults and 3 children; there were four devices out, two of which the parents occupied the younger children with. With three separate wrestling matches going on, we all should have had something to occupy ourselves with, right?

This was when I realized just how disconnected from the world I, and everyone else, was. While everyone in my family was engaged in conversation, I found that I was the odd one out. While the older couples talked, the adults and children played on cell phones and tablets. Before, I was more concerned with the contents of social media than with what those directly in front of me had to say. To say the least, I felt awkward, as if I had never learned basic social skills. The elderly woman in front of me complimented my little brother’s wrestling skills and it was like I had no idea what to say. My reply was, “yup”, which to make matters even worse, I stuttered to say. While trying to hide how mortified I was, I wondered how I would have replied if it were a Facebook comment. I would have no problem typing a “heartfelt” response.

I had an extremely hard time saying anything nice, no matter who it was. Yet, on social media, I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs of compliments to different people. Why is that? There’s a sort of false sentimentality behind the things we send from our keyboards. It is almost as if we are petrified of face to face confrontation. We are capable of fighting on Twitter all day long. However, if we were to turn the online argument into a face to face confrontation, nobody would have the guts to say what they normally would online. Things are so much easier to say behind a screen because you cannot see how words you are saying affect the other party. I have witnessed girls who sit across from their “best friend” and get along with them just fine, while they’re texting and gossiping about said “best friend” to the person sitting behind them.

When I returned to school that week, I continued my people watching. Going through my day, I realized that in a sense, I was there to interact with myself. Who was going to actually speak to me? Anything they needed to say to me, they would have texted. Because sending me a text was impossible, this meant talking to me face to face was also impossible. It was sad, but also hilarious at the same time. We are so self absorbed that we would rather type out and send what we have to say to the person beside us, rather than turn 45 degrees and use our words.

Small rectangles of light illuminated all around me all week, creating a sense of isolation for the one carrying it. We seem to isolate ourselves, when we’re on our devices. I cannot count how many times my dad has had to call my name over and over because I was too occupied with the memes on iFunny to pay attention to the world around me. Why would we? We get all of the gratification we need when our crushes hit “like“ on one of our posts or someone comments on our selfies. Who needs to pay attention to reality, anyway?

We have grown up with technology. In fact, we cannot seem to remember a time we were without it. Throughout the week, the biggest lesson I learned was that while we are drowning in social media notifications, the world around us is constantly evolving. The world is such a beautiful place with opportunities galore. The most memorable events are the ones we experience ourselves, not what we relive through everyone else’s posts. While it may not have seemed like much fun while it was happening, a week without my cell phone wasn’t that bad.

Being able to see the millennial problem everyone has been talking about for myself and deciding to make changes to my own habits? I’d “like” that.