Have you been viewing your life through your camera phone?

Cell phones have become such a huge part of our lives; We use them to get directions, catch up with family, shop, and TAKE PICTURES! It's the quickest, most convenient way to click, upload, and share what you are doing. 

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine had an extra ticket to go see Ellie Goulding in concert, so I got to go. She is one of my favorite artists and wow is she AMAZING live. I recorded almost every song on my Iphone, "snapped" all my friends videos and pictures of the concert, shoot I was basically watching the concert through my phone. 

For her last song, she sang On My Mind. But, we wanted more so we called for an encore. Ellie came back out but she didn't start singing. Instead she told everyone to take out their phones and turn on their flashlights - of course we all did - and then she told us something that shocked most of the audience: "now put your phones away." Whoa Whoa Whoa, slow down there Ellie.. you want us to put our phones away for the encore? No way! 

She then told us something along the lines of "The entire concert I haven't seen your beautiful faces, I have only seen your phones. I know you want to show your friends pictures and videos. But I want to see your faces. Too often we are watching the world through our camera phones and not living in the moment. 

Going to the Ellie Goulding concert I just wanted to have fun, dance, and sing along to my favorite songs. I had no idea that I was going to be a taught an incredible lesson that I think we all need to be more conscious of. Too often we are glued to our phones and we are truly missing out on the one chance we get at this thing called life. We are on a rock flying through outer space - shouldn't that be enough? Yet we have our eyes glued to a man-made object most of each day. Phones are a great thing to have, don't get me wrong I still use mine all the time. I just truly believe that we are missing SO MUCH because we are constantly on them.

I encourage all of you to spend an hour or two a day (doesn't seem like much - until you try it). Just one or two hours put your phone down or turn it off and go do things that fulfill you. Something cool might happen- a meteor could crash down in front of you - and you won't get a picture of it but, that is the beauty of it. You will get to ACTUALLY be there and see the meteor in real life. If you are reading this and you don't think you have an issue with being on your phone too much - think again. 

"Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, it interrupts our ability to have a thought or daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we are too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria to the office on the cell phone." - Steven Spielberg