Last week, my theatre professor said something rather profound. He was discussing plays, and how in today’s society, they are getting shorter and shorter. He ended up in a rant. He claimed society is becoming too impatient, that we are becoming too easily distracted. Our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. We can’t even sit through a play, designed for our entertainment, without complaining about the length and pulling out our phones. I started thinking about this, and quickly realized he was right.

If I watch a movie at my apartment with my roommates, chances are I can’t go the whole movie without pulling out my phone and scrolling through social media. I am ashamed to admit this, but it’s true. And I’m willing to bet it’s true for you as well. Our patience is gone. Our attention spans are absolutely nothing. What do I credit this to? Technology, social media and the like. We do not wait for anything any longer.

For example, how many of you feel like waiting on your ramen to warm up in the microwave is the most grueling 90 seconds of your life? I mean, I used to patiently wait on my mom to cook us a big family meal in the evenings. When she would call out “30 minutes till dinner’s ready!” I would be thrilled. Now, I find myself impatiently pacing until the microwave beeps. Or how about the way we relentlessly check our phones? If something doesn’t load within 2 seconds, we angrily hit “refresh.” If a webpage doesn’t come up first try, we get irritated, cursing the poor Wi-Fi connection. I mean, y’all, how absurd we are! We have become so used to the quick pace of our life today, we forget to stop and smell the roses. We forget that dinner is supposed to be eaten with friends and family, gathered around a table, not stuffed into our mouths before it even cools so we can rush off to the next big thing. We spend so much time trying to refresh our feed and look at the lives of other people we forget our own lives are happening outside that little social media application. We need to find our patience again. We need to slow down.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I fall into the trap. The traps — social media, internet and technology — cannot affect our lives unless we let them. And boy, do I let them. Now, there’s nothing wrong with technology — it’s a good thing! Thank goodness I can heat up my leftovers. Thank goodness I can whip out my phone and check the weather or see what my cousins out in Arkansas are up to. The trick is to not let it consume you. We are letting these things take us over, ruining our attention spans and shortening our patience levels.

We must make an effort to overcome these things. We should use technology to our benefit, but not overuse it so that it destroys our very existence. Take everything in moderation. Turn the notifications off during that movie. Delete those apps for a few days, and note how refreshed you feel. Turn on the oven and bake a homemade meal with your closest companions. Stop living life in such a hurry! It’s gonna fly by anyway, so you might as well try and slow down. Patiently allow things to come and go, cherishing your moments rather than wasting them away. We do not constantly have to be in a hurry. Start strolling, rather than sprinting. You’ll be amazed at what you might observe along the way.