My Relationship with Technology

When I was a little kid, I remember sitting in the back of my dad's car, taking the hour long drive to our shore house on the coast of New Jersey. I would usually bring a book, or some dolls, but would often get bored of them about halfway through the trip. When this would happen, I would press my nose up against the window, and watch the trees. I would watch how quickly the trees seemed to go by as we sped down the highway, and imagine the different creatures living in the woods. I'm eighteen now, and have two younger sisters who are fifteen and nine years old. When we drive down to the shore now, my dad is in the drivers seat, listening to Spotify and glancing at the Waze GPS pulled up on his phone. My mom is in the passengers seat, hooked up to a hotspot, answering emails for work. My fifteen year old sister is on her phone with her AirPods in, watching Grey's Anatomy. All the while, my baby sister Lila is in the very backseat, bored with the movie playing on the car's built in TV, and is begging my mother for her phone so she can play Candy Crush. Life has changed so much in what seems like such a short amount of time due to the takeover of technology. 

Technology is now the center of our lives. Sometimes I'll invite a group of friends over, and look up and realized each one of us has our noses buried in our phones. Its not just the people around me who are guilty of being sucked in my technology. I am a culprit too. Sometimes, I'll catch myself glancing at my phone at completely inappropriate times, such as in class, when I'm out to dinner, or even while I'm trying to have a conversation. I'm so attached to it, checking my notification has become a habit. Last week alone, I spent five hours on Netflix, four on snapchat, four on til Tok, three on Instagram, one on messages, and one on Facebook. These are hours I could've spent with my friends, reading, doing work, or any other abundance of things more productive than staring at my phone for hours on end. 

However, technology isn't all bad. While it takes up too much of my time, I enjoy the simple things like creating an aesthetic instagram feed, creating Pinterest boards, and messaging my family from back home. Technology gives me a way to express my creative side through photo editing and social media posts. It also gives me a way to connect with my family at home while I'm at college. I call at least one family member almost every day thanks to my iPhone. I also use my laptop every day to do my school work and to write creatively, which is one of my many hobbies. Sometimes I'll even download books on my phone or laptop for me to read when I cant get a ride to the bookstore. 

My relationship with technology is best described as a love/hate relationship. There are many pros and cons to it. I love being able to express my creative side, connect with my family, and get my work done faster and more efficiently. However, I hate how much time it consumes and how dependent I am on it. Often, I yearn for the days before I was attached to technology, when I would sit in the back of my parents car, and watch the trees.