{16} Interference

I'm sure that I'm not the only one that hasn't been on a date since moving to Provo. It's frustrating and annoying if you're not avoiding the dating scene completely. People are disconnected and don't bother to try reconnecting (or even connecting in the first place). Coming here, I felt like no one cared to really get to know me. Every conversation went as far as "Hi, what's your name and major" and ended at that before they moved on to the next person. Everyone was so involved in trying to meet everyone and have a solid base of people that they know. What I wonder about that is how many of those people do they really know? It's like a real life friends or followers list. Half the people on that list you may not even know on a personal basis but it makes you feel better to add another person to that number doesn't it? Carrying this over into relationships, technology has become a problem in our generation. BYU recently featured a study on the "technoference." The study shoed that being "dialed in" to your phones and technology leads to lower life satisfaction and relationship quality. Personally, that scares me. I've always dreamed of having the cute, 60's relationship where couples go out and spend time together, just having fun with one another. That vision never included either of us having to update Instagram on our latest venture and hoping for 50+ likes. I'm not saying that technology or social media is bad by any means, simply that it is overused and abused. Today, a group of friends can barely be together without each of them ending up on their phones and not even paying attention to each other. The other night at dinner a friend, after updating himself on everything going on throughout his social media, mentioned a video that I shared on Facebook about putting down your phone and not missing life around you and commented that it was "funny, coming from the one with the iPhone 6." But do you see me on it? No, I didn't think so. So.. put your phone down. Ask someone on a date. Go out with friends and don't look at your phone unless it's an emergency. Disconnect from the cloud world and reconnect to what's right in front of you.