Hey Phone Face, look up!

Today was the last day of school (hooray!) and as part of our send off the teachers stood in the front foyer ushering children out and eagerly awaiting the moment the last teenager stepped out the door.  As we stood shooing the little fiends out,one of the teachers offhandedly said "Look up at the sun and not at your phone, it's a beautiful day outside!"  While we all laughed at the comment it brought up a thought that I have been having for the past several months;can this generation function without a phone glued to their face?

Our kids are growing up in a world with constant information and communication at their fingertips but they have started putting such urgency and priority on the buzzing curse in their pocket that they have forgotten how to just be human.  Really.  The one tool that they could be using to learn and research with has created kids with a social handicap, kids who are uncomfortable having face-to-face interactions, kids who mentally suffer (and can be verbally abusive) when their precious device is taken away, kids who have no empathy because they can't see the effect their words are having on others, and kids who are unwilling to absorb those things that are important because the glowing face of their phone God beckons.  It is a thoroughly frustrating phenomenon for me to witness.  I can't tell you how many times a kid has been texting, snapchatting, playing a game, etc...  and missed important bits of instruction or experiences.  Everytime I've seen this happen I just want to grab them and shake them screaming "Look away from the damn screen!!  Life is out here and not in there!!!"

 It really makes me concerned that these same people will be joining the workforce in a few short years and they will lack the ability to communicate with co-workers and  lack basic work skills, and ethics, because they couldn't see that the priorities and successes that would help them in life didn't exist in a 4 inch screen but rather in the experiences that they allowed to pass them by.  How do we remedy this problem?  Honestly,I wish I knew.  This a plague that can't be fought with vaccines or antibiotics and it is a wide spread problem. Do you think we can cure the phone face generation?  I personally don't have a positive outlook on this...