I was born and raised in a world with technology all around me. It is the base for my daily life. I use technology to do my homework, talk to friends, play games, and go on social media. Technology can be used for almost anything which makes people so dependent on it, like myself.

I started to become dependent on technology when I got my first iPhone in seventh grade. Most of my friends got an iPhone in sixth grade, so they showed me how to use it and what apps to get, like Snapchat and Instagram. I gradually got more and more interested in these apps and would check them constantly. I would be on my phone during school, at dinner, and when I was with my friends. It became a habit and it felt weird if I didn’t have my phone on me.

I didn’t go a day without my phone because my mom never took it away and I never broke or lost it. I made sure to be very careful with it because I didn’t want to be without it and I knew it was expensive to replace. But that streak ended my freshman year of high school.

My club soccer coach had a tradition where he would take his team on a weekend camping trip after we got back from the high school soccer season. He told us that all of his previous teams loved this trip and that they all got closer because of it. One thing he didn’t tell us was that he would take our phones at the beginning of the trip and we wouldn’t get it back until our parents picked us up. So when our parents dropped us off, he told us that we had five minutes with our phone to text whoever we need, and then he would lock them in his car. My emotions turned from excitement to nervousness as I didn’t know what I was going to do without my phone.

At first, I wanted to go on my phone right away. But as I started to talk and do things with my teammates, I forgot about my phone. I started to realize why my coach took our phones. It forced us to look up from our screens and to interact with everything around us. We were aways interacting with each other and didn’t have anything to distract us. Instead of going on our phones when we were bored, we had to find something to do. As a result, I got much closer with my teammates and had one of the best weekends of my life.

Ever since that weekend, I have drastically reduced how much I use my phone. I do my best to leave it in my pocket whenever I go anywhere so I don’t miss out on anything. I learned that all of my social media has information that isn’t very important and you live your life when you aren’t looking at a screen. If you spend most of your time on some type of technology, you will miss out on what’s in front of you. Life is about experiencing new things and that happens best when your phone is put away.