Constant Connection

I'm 18, and I'll be honest, I always have my cell phone and am sometimes in a state of constant communication. But, there are certain times when it absolutely distasteful to use your cell phone, or any other technological outlet for that matter. Recently, I have noticed that people are beginning to completely ignore this unwritten rule. This not only infuriates me, but makes me sick to my stomach. Recently I was at a local Italian restaurant with my entire family and at the table across from us, there was what looked to be a grandmother, a mother and a daughter having dinner. I glanced over at the family, and noticed a bright light shining on the granddaughter's face. I glanced over again and realized that she was looking at her smart phone. This young girl seemed no older than 10, and was playing games and texting on a blackberry. I'd like to know, just who are you texting at the age of 10? The mother did not help the situation. It was almost as if she had given the girl the phone and said "Here, take this, entertain yourself, and dont talk." On another occasion, I was having dinner with my brother before a football game, and a little girl was standing in line, using the Internet, on, get this, an iPad. This girl was nowhere near even six years old, but she had a firm grip on the worlds newest piece of technology. I had no idea what the Internet was when I was six years old, and am still somewhat behind on its intricacies. Technology is waging a war against a sense of family. It is a fear of mine that the next generation, will lose communication skills completely, and only contact each other through email, text or even worse "tweet." Twitter has become an incredibly popular social networking site recently, and users type their everyday lives out into 140 character blurbs. People seem not to realize that most people on twitter could honestly care less that you are "Now eating captain crunch #sodelicious" or that after that you're "About to hit up the weight room #beachbod." Trust me, the whole world does not care what type of cereal you're eating. You know who I bet would like to know? You're father, who probably asked you at the table, but you were too busy hashtagging someone too even hear him.

Which brings me to my next point, if you have ever tweeted, facebooked or written on any social networking site something along the lines of "Hate my parents" or "OMG my mom/dad is such an expletive" than this next paragraph is directed right at you.

Are you kidding me? You hate your parents? You hate the people who have literally done everything for you, fed you, clothed you, gave birth to you (clearly that's for mothers only.) How would you feel if your parents saw that tweet? I can not stand people who do this, because really, I don't care how much of an expletive your father or mother is, they are still you parents and you should still appreciate them.

Social networking, cell phones and electronics in general are slowly stripping the world of its once strong sense of family. The people in your family are the people who made you who you are, and no phone or electronic tablet is ever going to be able to tell you that,