Lily+A’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2017

Our world has quickly evolved into a society where technology is a huge factor in day to day lives. We now have devices that can do wondrous things, and make working around the house easier, make driving easier, and make work easier. Everything has become easier because of technology. I believe that we need to stop relying on technology in day to day lives. For tasks that we can easily do for ourselves. I completely support the technological medical and scientific advancements we had achieved, and I hope those continue to improve every day. The device that I am mainly against, is our phones. Something that pretty much everyone has, and everyone uses every day. Phones have their obvious advantages: easy communication, talking with long distance friends, and access to the endless amount of information on the internet. But one of the negatives is that we constantly have to have them with us, in our hand, pocket, or bag. At all times our phones are only a foot away from us. Because of the advancement of phones, and their ability to take crystal clear photos, we always have them. Anything we do, we have to snapchat it, instagram it, or just take photos of everything we see. Because of the cameras that are so easily acceptable, we are all obsessed with photos. Anywhere you go, you take a picture. Most of the time, it's not only one picture it’s usually hundreds of photos from one weekend adventure. I believe that taking pictures is a good thing. It’s a reminder of the good times and brings back memories. But the fact the we actively take pictures, we no longer do things for the memories, we solely do it for the pictures. All we want is the good photo, not the good memory. If you see a pretty hike, the reason you want to go is to take a “cool” picture, then post it on social media. When taking these pictures you are physically in the moment, but you are so focused on capturing the photo, and sending it out on social media, that you are not truly there, taking in everything around you. We are so obsessed with photography, that we forget to truly slow down and enjoy the moment. For example, a couple of weeks ago I was videotaping one of my friends swim race at CIF. Half way through videotaping her I realized that I wasn’t even watching her swim. I was only focused on getting the right angle and making sure the camera wasn’t shaky. I started to feel guilty because I felt I wasn’t really seeing her swim. So I stopped the video, turned off the camera, and put it away. Then I could actually watch her swim FOR REAL!! I wasn’t watching her race through a perfect 500$ lense, I was watching with my own eyes, and my mind was now completely there. This something I bet we have all experienced. Whether it was an important event you were taking pictures of, or just a simple hike with some friends. It’s almost scary the things you can catch yourself oblivious to because of technology. Back when film cameras were more popular, you had only one roll of film in your camera. Between 24-36 pictures only, and you couldn’t check to see if your picture was good right after you took it, like we do now. You just had to hope for the best, that from the couple pictures that you took on your camping trip, at least one turned out good. And if you got home and got the film developed a week later, and realized some didn’t turn out as well as you wanted, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Because you weren’t only there for the photo, you were there for everything else. This is when the entire experience did not revolve around the camera. The single picture, can bring back an entire day of memories, instead of hundreds of pictures creating the memory. Maybe we need to start bringing back older technological devices. Not bring them back to be “hip”, but to help us go back to a time where having fun and making memories was the most important. My grandma has hundreds of pictures from when my dad was younger. No picture is the same. All of them are in new places. They wouldn’t want to waste time taking a precious picture somewhere they go all the time. While we take pictures every time we go to the beach, and every time we are about to go out on a Friday night. After a while the pictures barely have meaning because you just wanted the picture, not all the fun that supposedly came after. All the fun you said you had when you posted your picture on instagram. So the main reason I am so passionate about this topic is because I see it as something we can all relate to. And with the fact that we can all relate to it, I believe we can all individually fix it. This isn’t really an issue that we need to work together, to collaborate and find an in depth scientific way to fix it. It’s something we can just do simply on our own. I know that everyone who has a phone has the ability to go a couple hours without it. Go and really smell the roses. Embrace your surroundings. Here in our hometown there is countless of places to explore where you can make meaningful memories with friends and family. So the America I want to grow old in… is where we all embrace every moment. Where we allow our minds to fully engage in nature, with friends, with family members, and even with ourselves. All without a cellphone by our sides. I want to grow old in a beautiful America, with beautiful memories in my head, and beautiful people by my side.