I find it disheartening how we, as human beings, are constantly on our mobile devices. 

We live in a society where convenience lies within one device, where apps are in reach of a swipe and where life without a phone could never suffice. 

Everywhere I look, everyone is on their phones on campus.

I see it everywhere, students sitting on the bench staring at their phones, people eating lunch in the Student Union scrolling on their phones and even while waiting for the bus.

It is not surprising, though — technology is everywhere. From our cell phones to our computers, we use technology to aid us in our schoolwork or scroll on Instagram.

I think it’s challenging for this generation to understand what life was like before phones were prevalent.

Most of us were conceived either in the late ’90s or early to mid-2000s, in a time when technology was becoming more advanced.

Apple released the first iPod in 2001 and the first iPhone was sold to the public in 2007, according to a Britannica Money article. 

I personally remember when the commercials for the iPhone 4 first came out in 2010. I was seven years old at the time and remember it cost around $200. 

I did not have my first phone until I was 13, as I had to walk from middle school to pick up my brother from elementary school. The only reason I had a phone was because my mom was a single parent and she was always worried about me walking home by myself with my brother. 

The benefits of having a phone at that age was the beginning of having independence and the ability to communicate with my peers, but the negative side was that I was unknowingly developing a phone addiction.

In my early teen years, I would always stay up reading articles or scrolling through social media on my phone. It is something that affects me even as a college student. 

Americans spend an average of five hours on their phones per day, according to a Jan. 5 Harmony Health IT article. 

It begs the question of, do we truly know what life would be like offline?

When we funnel our time into a screen, we lack the creativity to explore life’s options of exploring new things or even socializing with our peers.

Researchers found that smartphone addiction hurts our creativity, according to a May 13, Frontier in Psychiatry study.  

Our addiction to our smartphones can prevent our prefrontal cortex and temporal areas from being as active when thinking creatively, according to a Dec. 5, 2022 article from The Swaddle.

I’ll admit it, my screen time a week averages to about five hours per day, which makes me disappointed in myself. 

My creativity plummeted when I found myself scrolling through Instagram and YouTube reels last year. Trading my time away from crocheting, I deleted Instagram for some time and my motivation to crochet came back after a week.

Regardless of whether we are doing homework, doomscrolling on social media, or streaming movies, having an average screen time of five hours a day is not healthy.

It is recommended to reduce screentime to lessen eye strain and to replace screentime with screen-free activities to reduce stress, according to a June 9 Scripps article. 

As a journalism student, I constantly have to consume media to understand what is going on in our world.

Even though I use my phone to consume the news from social media or the Internet, I do enjoy other forms of media that are printed in a physical form. 

I strive to be offline from my phone, like reading a book, crocheting, listening to NPR on my radio or using a traditional alarm clock instead of my phone. 

I do this for myself to get away from my phone, because I want to feel present and be mindful of my time. I want to feel tangible items on my fingertips instead of being absorbed into my phone or computer screen. 

While not completely cutting myself from technology, I found myself enjoying obsolete tech.

Like using my digital camera to take photos and listening to music on my iPod, making it so I can take a step back from using my phone and enjoy life at a slower pace.

Embracing older technology can be appealing to people who want to set boundaries and reduce the temptation of scrolling through social media as they encourage mindfulness, according to Feb. 3 Creativebrief article.

While to some I may be an old soul using obsolete tech, I’d rather have my pockets full and heavy to remind me to enjoy life differently.