Think about what you do every morning as soon as you turn your alarm off. Do you reach for your phone? Do you even silence your phone at night when you go to bed? We are all guilty of doing at least one of these things. Statistics say that about 66% percent of millennial reach for their phone before they even rise up out of their covers, and 75% percent of people admit to not turning off their phone when going to bed. This is only the beginning of a generation of addiction.

 

It’s innocent enough if somebody is spending a few minutes on their phone or tablet per day just to check a text or to check out a trending story on the news, but the average American teen will spend 8 hours on technology every day. 8 HOURS! That’s 2,920 hours a year! You spend about 2,920 hours per year sleeping, meaning that many people are spending just as much time in front of screens as they do sleeping. Most of us don’t even notice how much time we spend in front of technology, but it is way too much.

 

For example, I get up in the morning and get ready for school. I may check my phone once to see if any of my friends texted me overnight. In school, I will use a computer for about 2-3 hours in order to do school work. When I get home, I spend roughly 1-2 hours doing my homework, the majority of which is digital. After homework is done, I often switch on the TV to see what’s going on in the world, and that eats up about an hour of my day. By the end of the day, I have used technology for about 5-7 hours, and I still feel like I want to sit down in front of the computer and play some video games.

 

Now, I don’t feel that I am addicted to technology. Recently, I have received my first phone. An iPhone 6s. Even though I don’t use it very often, I feel like my day is more cluttered and crowded than it used to be. I still check my messages to see if I got any texts from my friends, and that makes me feel less connected to them in reality. People are spending more and more time in front of computers, phones, and tablets than time with family, or friends. We are entering the generation of technology, and unless we don’t do anything about it, devices will control the rest of our lives.