by Madelyn Carter | Co-editor-in-chief

Facebook status update, make that a tweet, watch a season of Friends on Netflix, scroll through Pinterest, play Modern Warfare 3, turn music on, text, check Facebook, check Twitter, Netflix, Pinterest, XBox, iPhone, YouTube, DVR, buzzzburkzipsmash. We do so much STUFF. We are so involved, consumed, entranced; the real question is, are we ever going to overload?

Our generation has stepped into a world where we can always do something, talk to someone, laugh at a picture, watch a video, live in a fantasy world, or whatever else we could imagine doing. Is it so bad to be connected? I mean, we get to keep in close contact with friends and family who live far away, keep connections with new friends, share stories with best friends, and see what the world is up to! It’s pretty remarkable if you think about it in that context.

But let’s step into the real world. I saw a girl and her grandfather at EZ’s once. She was just texting along while they sat in silence, her grandfather just staring, probably not even knowing how to answer the voicemail on his flip phone. Have we thrown away human contact for our beautiful megabytes and virtual worlds? Conversation has disintegrated in our generation. Some teenagers have the hardest time holding a conversation with adults, but they can sure as heck text their lives away any day.

“What are you getting at?” you ask, politely. Well, maybe we can change the fate of our multitasking, virtual-world-living generation and be real people. Would putting the phone down while someone talks to us be so hard? Could we not check Facebook for an hour for no reason and pick up a book? Could we put down the controller and take a walk outside?

I’m not saying we should pitch out all technology, move to the country, sew our own clothes, walk to the schoolhouse, and start growing beets, (or any other crop, I mean we can’t all grow beets, that’s just ridiculous). I mean, I love technology, you couldn’t read this fabulous article without it! But how about a little less tuning in to the cyber-world and a little more tuning in to real life.