12 Things to Do Instead of Checking Your Phone

When you're in the room BE in the room 

How many times have you been chatting with a friend when right in the middle of the conversation they pull our their phone and starts texting or goes on facebook?  

Like seriously dude.. 

Am I that uninteresting? 

Or when you're sitting around with some friends and the conversation lulls down and WHABAM!! Weapons are drawn and eyes are glued.  

Its like were these human insects drawn to the light of the screens all around us.  

Have you ever been at a restaurant and your date was more interested in the flashing of the screen behind you? 

I thought going out was suppose to get you out of your normal routine. 

Maybe we are instinctively like insects. Drawn to the light. Consumed by the light. Morning noon and night.  

Can someone say culture shift.  

CULTURE SHIFT.  

Don't worry I said it for you.  

So what he heck has changed? Why can't we be fully present where we are?  

We have this need to constantly be occupied, but I really think its a false sense of business.  

When we are consuming ourselves with the social lives of our online presence we are checking out of the genuine experience of real life. 

Is life lived online a real life lived? Is an online presence more important to us now than the flesh right in front of us?  

If we were to split up our days into the amount of time we spent on any kind of technological device and time spent interacting with people without a device I wonder how surprised we may be. 

Now, I am not by any means saying that technology is bad. I am targeting those moments when you have the chance to choose between reality and internet, between observing a human being in the flesh or through the pictures, videos or words they want you to see. 

Hmm.. Phone? Person? Which will I choose? 

There is so much more value in the face to face conversations of a person. A different kind of interaction that show the raw side of that person. They don't get to choose what you see or hear of them. It is just 100% them. They can't change what they are typing a few times til it sounds just right. They can't take an hour to reply to your message. It's all just there. In that moment. It’s real. #nofilter 

This culture shift has changed life into a split between who we are in real life with the people we come in contact with and the lives we observe online.  

Put yourself in their shoes the next time you want to check out of a conversation and whip out your phone. Pause for a moment to think and allow things to flow. Don't put a stopper on things. 

Be that person they remember who chose to pay attention to them the entire time. Be that person who doesn't resort to the online world when everyone elses' phones are drawn. 

Put the weapon down and learn to fight the war on the mind. 

Here are some tools that have helped me in battle: 

1) Look at that person think to yourself, "They are interesting and I can learn something from them" 

2) Rephrase what that person has said back to them and watch them come alive. You have made them feel like they have been heard. Allow others to be heard. 

3) Don't check your phone every time it buzzes. Voicemail and text were made for a reason people. To check at your convenience. 

4) When there is a dull moment, let it be dull. Be okay with silence. 

5) Don't say "awkward" not many people feel more comfortable or open after that is said. More on that word later. 

6) Take interest in something you may or may not about and allow someone to teach you something they are passionate about. Everybody loves to teach what they are an expert about. 

7) Stare at them. Just do it. What do you have to lose.  

8) For the fidgeters out there, like myself, when someone is talking to you keep your hands together. Sit on them if needed. It seems like you don't care when you mess around with your jewelry, nails, or hair. 

9) Don't interrupt someone in the middle of their speech. This goes along with being heard. Allow them to finish their thought, repeat it back to them, ask them questions.  

10) Make it your goal to make them feel special and appreciated  however you can.  

11) Play this game when you are out to dinner with friends: Have everyone stack their phones and the first person to draw theirs has to pay.  

12) Be the one who sits there when everyone is on their phone. I dare you.

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