I have so much trouble socially because of phones. Now, hear me out, I’m not against phones, or social media. I think they’re a good way to share things. But like, vertical scrolling content, such as YouTube shorts, Facebook reels, or Tik-Tok, they’re such a wall between me and the rest of the world. I’m not a phone oriented person. I use my phone for an average of 1 hour a day, aside from my use of digital art programs, which does bring that number up more, to around 3 hours. But almost the entirety of that time is at home, in private. If I’m using my phone around other people, it’s to text either of my parents about something they need. Yet all of my peers (I’m a highschool Junior) will pull out their phones and scroll through Tik-Tok all day. I have a good circle of friends, all kind and funny, easy to talk to and communicative people I love spending time with… Until they all pull out Tik-Tok at the same time and then I’m sitting there with no one to talk to and nothing to do, until someone shows me an edit of two seconds clips of a show I’ve never seen with bass boosted music over it, when if I take a damn I could just go watch the show and not have my brain melt to mindless, overstimulating noise. I feel so lost and frustrated, because at this point there’s nothing for me to do. It happens with my friends, my boyfriend, my dad, and uncleget stuck in Facebook reels, even my 9 yr old sister makes her way to YouTube shorts if she can find her way to a tablet. What do I do to survive socially in a world where everyone has their head so far up their ass in a phone I have to miss out on the wonderful person they are underneath it all?