It was an ordinary Wednesday afternoon just hanging around in my friend’s room. There were four of us all together, and I decided to put my phone away to observe everything that was going to happen in the next 15 minutes. One of my friends was on her laptop doing homework while my other two friends were on their phones watching TikToks. As time went by, I noticed how there was not much conversation going on beside the occasional laugh followed by “Hey guys you have to check this video out!”.

            After sitting in an almost silent room for 15 minutes, it had me thinking; if 15 minutes of your day, with your friends, is spent on social media, imagine what you are missing. In 15 minutes, you can walk to main street, go to UDairy, or even walk to the Lil Bob and go rock climbing! Instead, so many of us are content just sitting around on our phones in each other’s presence.

My mom always tells me stories about when she was in college. In order to use a phone, you needed to walk down the hallway to a payphone that had a cord. I know, hard to believe those actually existed. But even though that sounds almost dreadful having to go ALL the way down the hallway to make a call, my mom said she would not have wanted it any other way. There were no distractions when she was with her friends. In order to get a laugh, they couldn’t look up a TikTok or a funny tweet; they had to interact with one another, sharing funny high school memories, Friday night stories, and even just goofing around with one another.

Unfortunately, we live in a society where it is the social norm to always have your phone glued to your hand, no matter where you are or who you are with. Thinking back to those 15 minutes I spent with my friends, I wonder what we would have done if all we had was a payphone down the hall.