This Past summer, I was on the T in Boston with a couple of friends on our way to a concert and we were all just sitting there on our phones and while on our phones we all neglected to notice the woman in front of us trying to talk to us until she tapped me on my shoulder at our stop. She told
me she had been trying to get our attention the whole ride and wanted to tell us we all looked like twins sitting with our legs crossed and staring at our phones.
Instead of talking to each other and being excited about the concert we were all tweeting about it and instagramming pictures of us on our way and texting others about it.
Ever since that moment i've started to pay more attention to my own cell phone usage as well as observing all the excessive cell phone usage around me.
Our generation has become so desensitized to how rude cell phone usage can be and have also been drawn into the social media hysteria, and as a result it is damaging our social skills.


(Social media apps by Jason Howle found on flickr made available for reuse by creative commons license )

1. Why are we so addicted to cell phone usage and social media? Our generation has been exposed to technology and cell phones our entire lives.
2. Cell phones have become so universally useful, replacing alarm clocks, notebooks with notes, CD's and records with Itunes. Its hard not to use our phones so often when they're so useful.
3. Any time you turn on the TV or radio almost every other commercial is for a new cell phone. if not then they're incorporated in the song or TV show as well. Actors texting or on social media, singers mentioning twitter, instagram, etc. Twitter especially has been a location to find drama or the latest news updates.
4. I know you have all done it. You pretend to be texting or pretend to be on the phone to avoid talking to someone. And I also know you all have procrastinated doing a project, going to workout, or even going to bed.
5. Fear. Fear of seeming weird or uncool for not owning a cell phone or not having any friends to text. Fear of being in an emergency situation and not having a way to contact someone.

(Cell phone business by Stefan Klauke found on Flickr available in the public domain.)

Social media damages our real life social skills significantly.
I don't know about you but if I have a daughter one day I don't want her thinking that a sweetest gesture a boy can do for her is to make her his WCW (women crush wednesday.)
When our cell phones go off with notifications of who's birthdays are that day, we automatically send them a generic "Happy Birthday" tweet. And we have all seen the unnecessary and excessive instagram collages made for birthday's. So why do we? Why don't we call them or send them a real birthday card? Why not even hang out with them or go to lunch or dinner? And actually socialize with them rather than sending them that simple tweet or post.
Social media has made it so easy to become unsocial.

(In New York even babies want their own cell phones by Ed Yourdon found on flickr available to the public domain)

Social Media and cell phones often tend to draw more attention or create more drama for a topic than necessary. As a result we are entertained, intrigued, and interested in wanting to know more. So we return to these social media sites and we refresh our timelines.
For example, the whole ebola situation a few months ago was recorded to be tweeted about for a total of 10.5 million tweets.
and yet not even half of them were even factual.
To quote the wise words of Albert Einstein "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots."

(Albert Einstein by walking geek found on flickr used by permission of a creative commons license)