The No Selfie Challenge

Recently, while spending a night at home watching New Girl and being incredibly lazy my boyfriend looked at me and told me "Marissa, you are addicted to your phone."

To which I fired back immediately, "No, I'm not."

But here's the thing: over the course of the next couple of days I started to notice something about myself... I could not hold a conversation without looking at my phone. Like, there would be someone physically talking to me and I would be on my phone instead of devoting my full attention to them.

Also, I would be talking to my boyfriend at home and have to pause what I was saying to take an ugly snapchat of myself to send to my best friend, because naturally you must reply to snaps within ten seconds of getting them. And he would get annoyed and I wouldn't understand why, after all it wasn't like I was ignoring him.

But in a way, I was. I was ignoring his physical presence to take a picture of myself and send it to someone who wasn't in the room or in this city.

I was scrolling through my pictures on my phone to delete some and saw more selfies than I care to admit to. just know it was a lot. Now I've always told myself I took these selfies with good intentions, aka sending them to my boyfriend when we were spending the summer apart. However I was also making them my twitpics and Instagramming them #selfie

It had just gotten out of hand. So I told myself no more. I'm tired of living in a world where people can't even go a whole dinner conversation without checking their phones as if there will be someone who so desperately needs your attention right then. I hate that as soon as I get a text, my eyes go to my phone and away from whoever I'm talking to. Does anyone else see how this is totally messed up?

My generation is taking virtual relationships and placing them above physical ones. Don't get me wrong, texting is great, so is Twitter, but, like, talk to people! There is no reason for you to be on your phone the entire time that someone is telling you a story. It makes you pay attention less, seem more distant, and most importantly it makes it look like you don't care.

So how do we fix this? How do we still have meaningful relationships outside of Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook?

My proposal:

The No Selfie Challenge
Honestly, do you NEED to take a picture of yourself in the mirror in the morning? Do you NEED to take an ootd? Why would you post a picture of your outfit on the internet anyway, then you can't wear it again the next day! Yes I know your hair and makeup are rockin today, but do you HAVE to document that?

The No Phones At Dinner Challenge
You've heard of this before, I'm sure. It's the put your phones in the middle-first one to look pays-kinda deal. Except my friends and I are not paying for each other and that is final. But the concept is good. Put your phones away, enjoy each other. If you can't even hold a conversation with your friends over dinner how good of friends are you really?

The Put It Away I'm Literally Right Here Talking To You Challenge
The name says it all. If someone is directly talking to you-I don't care who it is- put your damn phone away and at least pretend to listen. It's so rude to just be staring at your phone the whole time. Would you do that to your boss? I certainly hope not. I know Flappy Bird is like super addicting and you're on a roll but just put it down.

Will you take the challenge with me?