Technology is supposed to make our lives easier. It’s supposed to give us more time to do the things that we want to do in life. We are to be able to spend more time with friends, family, and making time for ourselves, but it feels like just the opposite. Instead, we’ve become busier and we use technology as a way of communicating to build or keep relationships going. It’s more than just living out of state that has changed living, but our priorities. I never thought that there would come a time where the family unit would become so broken, and a computer screen would be my main way of speaking.

I never thought that there would be a time that the only way I would speak to someone would be through Facebook, Twitter, and cell phone messaging. I never imaged that the day would come where I would hear of people panicking just because they left their cell phones home. We have become too dependent on technology to get through the day. I often feel sorry for younger generations that I didn’t experience playing jumping rope or hopscotch outside. That’s where friendships developed when we were younger, and many times, those were the relationships that carried us into our adult lives.

It’s almost unheard of today to have face-to-face conversations. Time is of the essence, more importantly, we have lost interest in making time. Real life relationships have been replaced with real-time relationships. We don’t need to have the bravery or strength to have conversations, and when faced with the opportunity, it can be uncomfortable. Not because talking is difficult, but that we have forgotten how to use and to continue developing an essential skill. It becomes challenging to get past the dependency on using technology and to have conversations.

Since technology has become the standard way of having relationships. It also feels like a very lonely world, where what’s meant to be isn’t about two people growing old together, or two people sharing a lifetime of friendship between them. Instead, growing older has become two people and their technology that has replaced the true relationship. Isn’t it the memories that bring us making time for one another? Aren’t memories what keep us going when times seem tough? I tend to think so, we need to bring back the idea of building memories with friends and families. We need to bring something more to remember what we wrote on someone else’s Facebook wall. It’s sad to see how common it is for younger generations to not have friends or very little friends. It’s so much different than what generations before them experienced. Where we built connections with each other and created a lifetime of lasting relationships and memories.

The changing times that have broken down relationships because of technology can even be seen in television commercials. Hershey had a commercial of a person holding a s’mores with the caption, “making time for family memories.” This is so true since memories are the most beautiful pictures our minds can paint and nothing can ever erase them.