How often do you look at your phone? Do you feel like you always need your phone close by? You are not alone. A lot of us feel a need to a pull out our phones. Even though you may not have any notifications on the screen, you just want to check it quickly in case someone has called or texted you since the last time you checked.

According to the Pew Research Center website, 68 percent of adults in the United States owned a smartphone in 2015, and 98 percent of adults owned cell phones.

With people being drawn to their phones, they lose track of what is going on around them. Life is passing people by because of this. Most people check their phone 150 times a day, according to a New York Times article.

Ethan Maurice, a writer for The Clarion, said he feels smartphones are easy to use. He feels like he “has an assistant in his pocket.”

Jas-Marie Nelson, a liberal arts transfer student, said her smartphone helps her keep track of things and can be used for entertainment, too. As Nelson said, “Because we have to keep contact and in touch with people, it keeps us updated with things going on.”

Young adults send 110 texts per day according to a New York Times article.

“When you look at it, you lose time,” said Lara Major, a liberal arts transfer student. When talking about losing her smartphone she said, “Some people get scared and afraid. I don’t do it. I could live without it.” Still, she said she uses her phone often to listen to music.

Even though use of smartphones can cause people to lose time out of their day where they could be studying, working, or doing other more productive stuff, it can come in handy as well.

Ibrahim Baalblai, an employee in the financial aid office, says that smartphones can be used for anything: GPS, paying bills, social media, and contacting family and friends. It is an all-in-one thing.

Amanda Craugh, who is a vet tech student, got her smartphone as a hand-me-down from her brother. She says she would have been fine without it because she does not use it or look at it often “because of the large influence that social media has on us.”

With the influence of social media and the need to know what is always going on in the world, people get drawn into using their phones and end up getting addicted to their phones.

Forty-six percent of people say that they cannot live without their phones, according to the New York Times.

“The only difference between digital addiction and other addictions is that this is a socially condoned behavior,” said Nancy Colier in a New York Times article. “We see it everyday, and we find ourselves everyday always on our phone being connected in the world in many ways. We think of it as something that is the new normal, and we do not step away.”

A quote that really stuck out to me in the New York Times article was this: “The near-universal access to digital technology, starting at ever-younger ages, is transforming modern society in ways that can have negative effects on physical and mental health, neurological development and personal relationships, not to mention safety on our roads and sidewalks.”

We need to take time to look up from our phones and live our lives, and experience what the world has to offer. Humans were not put on the planet to get sucked into technology and away from living a full life.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it,” said Ferris Bueller in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

I feel like we should take his advice.  Look up from your phone once in a while.