The sky can be blue, dark or cloudy and is the visual limit of the eye. In today’s society, judgement is a real issue among people of all ages. No matter if the judgement is taking place behind a phone screen or behind someone’s back, it’s always going to be present. Humans, particularly teens, are expected to have a social media account and use it at all times. Even though much of the world communicates, and seemingly functions, through a phone screen nowadays, having the power to hide behind that screen is not always a positive and it is a power that is being abused by millions of people, as well as many Sequoits.

Objects above the ground that are in the vault of the blue darkness or cloudiness of the sky appear to be “in the sky.” Birds, airplanes and skyscrapers seem to be “in the sky” as well. Yet, an airplane taking off or a bird flying off of a low branch is perceived to be in the air, not the sky. A fly ball in baseball may seem sky-high, but it eventually comes back down to earth. Everything in life can be looked at and perceived in those distinct ways. The sky seems to be the visual limit of the eye. This limitation of the sky can compare to phone screens at almost every dinner table, group gathering and, in general, today’s society. The problem that comes into play is this limitation is more present for Sequoits than anyone realizes.

Air is the gas around us that we breathe and is visible, but the sky is what someone sees when they look up outside the four walls that confines them both physically and mentally: attitudes, values and ideas. The distinction is the sky can contain air, but air cannot contain sky. This can be compared to how people see to the phone screen and not through it. One side of a story may appear to be true, but the truth may never be known without the other side of the story. Some use social media to degrade people, places and subjects, without any reason besides receiving likes and gaining followers; forgetting that there is someone with feelings on the receiving end. Humans see what they want to see and not what is in front of them. Humans are blind when it comes to situations and thoughts that scare them, or ones that they cannot imagine the outcome or its impact on themselves or others; a lack of forward thinking is a believed flaw of this generation.

“No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit,” American photographer Ansel Adams once said.

This quote stands for individuality and never folding for what others perceive is the right way to act, talk or dress. Social media accounts have forced people to be the opposite of this. For example, on Twitter people focus on tweeting personalized posts about their lives and daily activities that matter; instead, they focus on tweeting funny, popular posts that may lack any originality or context to who they are. On Instagram, people are forced to post the most “high-quality” photos with “clever” captions to get more likes and followers than their friends. People care about their Twitter followers and Instagram likes more than what really matters in life.

“I think social media has made young adults and teenagers believe that the amount of followers someone has is related with popularity,” senior Max Barton said.

Years ago, when kids were actually “allowed” to be kids, they spent most of their time outside exploring the world and hanging out with friends. Nowadays, it is not unusual to see a preschooler playing on the latest iPad or iPhone. Rather than going outside and playing on the playground, kids would prefer time on social media and cell phones. Social media is more of a competition to be popular, rather than what it was really created for: contacting friends and family. By no means has social media been a total negative on the world, but it has been a strong storm that has taken over people’s time and wasted it.

“Phones can make life easier when trying to stay in contact with others or to make plans,” senior Gracie Mateja said. “But when you hangout with a group in person, the focus can be on the phones, rather than interacting with each other.”

Being able to make plans with friends and stay in contact with those who live far away is what’s so great about social media, but when that gets in the way of spending time with those people in person, it becomes a larger issue.

There are the knowns and there are the unknown, and the inbetween is the perception of what both actually mean and how one chooses to react to them—the gray matter. The great part about having free speech and being able to say whatever comes to mind is people can create their own perceptions, but when those perceptions are slimmed down to the bone by a phone screen, they don’t matter anymore.

Money may be power, but time is everything. Every aspect of life is measured by time. Everyone wants more time for the things they love and less for the ones they could care less for; however, what many choose to do is use the excuse that time is the thing they never have. All people are entitled to spending their time how they please, but at the dinner table when all of the kids are sitting on their phones, totally ignoring the world and socialization, the time may become a problem. And time is what doesn’t change, so why waste the only guarantee one has.

In an article for CNN, Jacqueline Howard said, “Americans devote more than ten hours a day to screen time, and growing.” Walking through the halls and sitting in classes, it is obvious throughout the Sequoit community that students and some staff live up to this statistic.

“I spend a lot of my free time on my phone,” Barton said. “I could use this time to study or actually do something productive.”

Even though this is a large amount out of a 24-hour day, the results are not surprising. Of course, technology is always present in today’s society for school and work purposes, but the extra time spent on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat is much more than necessary. Try to go on a break, try to make more time for other, more important aspects of life. Social media, despite its name, is not very social at all.

“People are becoming more of [technological] introverts with phones and social media,” Mateja said. “They don’t want to deal with anything face-to-face anymore.”

For some people, it is not difficult to put down the phone and ignore it, but, for others, it is not that easy. A lot of people have the urge to constantly check their phones and a lot of the times they have no idea why they are. Using a cell phone for a lot of people has gotten to the point of becoming a bad habit. Rather than joining in conversations or activities, these people blatantly ignore them while staring at the phone screen