Modern technology and loneliness go together hand in hand in my book. Looking back over the years things has changed so much. I remember as a young child spending more time with my family. Now that I am older, it seems people more busy and we communicate over the phone and computer more for convenience purposes. Even in my own home I see my parents on their tablets, phones, and computers more and we spend little time verbally communicating. We actually have game night with our electronics. Where has the quality time gone? Even though we are all together in the same room, I still feel lonely at times because we are not wholly interacting with each other. We do not have each others' undivided attention.

This may have started when internet became a staple in the household or when smart phones became a necessity to most. When I was in 3rd grade I remember getting my first handwritten letter from a girl. That was one of the few. I felt so special at the time and I put a lot of thought into the letter that I wrote back. Now, I get texts or messages on Facebook. Handwriting will be a thing of the past if technology keeps advancing. Even though there is thought put into these messages it is not the same. My girlfriend and I are guilty of this. We text all day but rarely talk to each other on the phone or in person. I wish we could spend more time together but with our busy schedules it doesn’t happen much. When we do we both have our phones in our hand and don’t seem to let them get too far away from us. I get lonely with the fast paced life.

It seems to me that is almost impossible to just get away from the real world and embrace the presence of our loved ones due to our modern day world. This is causing so many strains on relationships of all types across the whole world. Children are missing out on time with their parents because of the electronics in the house. Maybe if we could all just step away from our emails, online games, and social media, we could enjoy each other more. I know for sure there would be more eye contact made and more smiles with laughter shared instead of a simple “lol”. We should not take for granted that people will always be there because they will not. We need to spend quality time with the ones we love to fill that void of loneliness that most all of us feel.