Students and people in general rely heavily on technology these days. We are all just buried in our phones and hardly pay attention to the world around us. 

There are a lot of benefits that technology provides us, including having unlimited resources of informtion right at out fingertips and always ways to improve processes. However, in my opinion it is harder for people to form strong relationships with the use of technology. 

My phone broke for a week during this semester and I was forced to pay attention to my surroundings when walking across campus or just waiting in line for food or for coffee. 

Throughout that week it was so difficult to communicate with friends and family or even get people’s attention. It is so easy to get distracted by your phone and miss everything that is happening around you. 

You would truly be surprised with what you will notice walking across campus when you do not have that distraction. I was forced to interact with people. In the beginning I ended up annoying the stuffing out of everyone around me because they had a phone to distract them and I needed them to distract me. 

In the beginning of my weeklong technology detox it was harder for me to get people to continue a conversation, but I just kept it up. I was able to realize some people have the same routine that I do. Around the same time every morning, we get coffee before heading over to class. 

I was able to recognize a lot more people and make connections with people by just simply starting a conversation while waiting in line for coffee. I ended up meeting one of my close friends by doing this. It took a while to get people to actually communicate with me. However even now that I have my phone, I try to pay attention to my surrounding and try to have that in person communication. You will truly be surprised on the opportunities to make connections that you miss by keeping your eyes glued to your phone.

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