About two years ago, I watched a YouTube video entitled “Look Up”. The video shares the story of two people who fall in love. They bump into each other on a street corner one day and begin to chat. From there, it shows the hardships they face,

and the total love they have for each other. We see them buy a house, raise a family, become grandparents, and ultimately end their lives together, in love, as a happily married couple. We see how grateful they are for their original meeting that day, on the corner of the street. Some may call that a perfect life full of love and happiness.

At the end of the video, we see that this couple’s loving relationship actually never happened. These soul mates were supposed to bump into each other the first day on the street corner, but they were so focused on their phones that these two strangers never actually met and never got their happy ending. Technology ruined the happy ending of these two people. If they simply looked up from their phones instead of being totally engrossed in social media, they would have found each other and had a fulfilling, happy life.

We are constantly exposed to technology as a student at Xavier. I spend most of my day looking at a screen. Whether it’s blankly staring at my iPad screen while a teacher gives a lecture, or spending hours on my phone at night when in reality I should be getting a restful night of sleep. I feel that I have missed out on so much beauty in the world.

Going on long car rides seems like a hassle unless I have my phone. I can spend hours upon hours inside a car with virtually nothing to do. I usually turn to my phone for some sort of entertainment. Whether it’s Snapchat or Twitter, I am totally focused on the screen. I now realize that I could be enjoying the view of the countryside. The first time I ever truly enjoyed a long car ride was when I was in the seventh grade. I was forced by my mom to get up before the sun rose to travel to Waterloo. I first thought to myself, “Ok great, another hour I can spend on my phone to make the time go by fast.” My original plan did not happen. For some reason above me, my phone did not charge the night before. I was angry and frustrated that I would have to spend an hour in the car, full of boredom. I stared blankly out the window wishing for the time to go by faster. About fifteen minutes into the car ride, the sun started to rise and the sky turned a thousand different colors. I was in total amazement and could not believe what I was seeing. The sky was changing colors right before my eyes. To this day, I have never seen something so beautiful. Looking back, I now realize I would have never experienced this sun rise if my face was buried in my phone.

We miss out on so much being constantly focused on our devices. I let my devices distract me from the beauty of the world. The quicker we realize that when we put down our phones and actually experience the world is when we see the world without a filter. We start to experience real, actual things instead of living through our phones. Do not allow your phone to take away from your experiences.