Articles: I'm 15 and I can't look up from my phone

BY RUBY KARP

I’m at a party hanging out with my friends. We are all heads down on our phones, until one of us pulls out Snapchat to take a group photo. We all fix our hair, pose, inspect the picture — then go back to complete silence with our devices.


Welcome to the teen generation.

As I’ve grown older, I have noticed that social events aren’t so social anymore. Our generation as a whole can’t seem to function without making sure everything is photographed. We have stopped living in the moment because it isn’t a moment for us until it is captured.


Our generation seems to have passed the point of having fun without documenting it.

As much as our elders tell us to delete these time-consuming, life-sucking apps, we don’t.

I’ve had various friends who have been wise enough to stay off social medias like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Some aren’t on anything! But for those of us who are, we can’t delete and break free. Once we are on it, we don’t want to miss out on what we are losing once we get off it: access to other people’s moments, even if we aren't a part of them.


In the middle of a meal or a conversation, I can’t ever seem to resist the urge to pull my phone out and refresh my feed or text someone new. This is not because I'm part of a “sad” generation, due to our technology-based actions. It's not because I don’t know how to be social without my phone. This is my natural instinct in moments of awkwardness or boredom. When I don’t know what to say next, I check my phone.

Some say that my generation does this because we don’t know what to say. I completely agree. We pull out of phones out of discomfort, as a distraction to comfort ourselves about the weirdness of the situation.


I once read an article by a woman who said she would never go on a date with someone who pulled out their phone in the middle of it. For my generation, I fear this rule may have to be terminated. Most people I know can’t go longer than 10 minutes without checking their phones at least once. Whether it be to check for a message that we know we didn’t receive or even to check the time, we are constantly tapping our screens.

When I was 13, I would go to my friends Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. It was crazy how many kids sat in the back texting on their phones — as one of their friends was becoming a man/woman!

We have seemed to forget when we are crossing the line of disrespectful and decent.

I don’t know how this is going to change. I don’t know if it is going to change. I don't know if it has to.

I do know that I go to sleepaway camp for nine weeks where there is no cellphone reception, and I love it. I know the appropriate time to put my phone away and start conversation.

And there's still hope. While it is sad that this behavior has become instinct, we are still kids. We — surprise! — go outside. We take breaks. We sleep.

Our generation has the reputation that we are consumed in technology. While that is completely correct, don’t forget that we are still kids. While technology is evolving, so are we. Hopefully soon someone will invent a robot that makes us stop texting at the dinner table.

Ruby Karp is a feminist, comedian and journalist.
Follow her on twitter @rubykarp.

Do you share her views?