People are able to travel across the world in less than a day. Information can be found with a few clicks of a button. People from other continents, other countries, and other cultures, are able to communicate with ease, all thanks to modern technology.

But what about the other side to these personal devices?

No, thanks.

Modern tech has revolutionized and globalized our world that is shrinking in size and growing in opportunity. While personal devices are phenomenal, many fail to realize how privileged they are to have their precious smartphones. Many more seem to abuse their access to a world of knowledge and power at their fingertips.

As a high school senior, I am sandwiched between those before me, who grew up mainly without the advanced phones we have today, and those after me, who were practically raised by motherboards. Those my age grew up with the progress of smartphones; as we matured, so did the mobile technology around us. We’re proficient and tech-savvy, but not as careless with our phones as future generations are projected to be – or are we?

A casual poll was taken of different classes around Bob Jones, grades ranging from 9th to 12th in a full, randomized spectrum.

Out of 130 students, 42% said that throwing your phone at a sibling was not misusing your device. Two things are wrong with this: one, apple products are delicate. With a drop of a hat – or phone – the iPhone screen shatters like a china doll (to be fair, not all smartphones are as fragile). Two, throwing a phone at a sibling is likely to end in parental trouble or worse: the sibling takes the phone.

43% of the 130 students said that texting or snap-chatting while driving was perfectly fine.

I’d like to think that taking a picture of oneself and sending it to others would be less important at the moment than taking one’s eyes off the road – especially when there are actually moving cars, bikers, and people. Time does not stop when you text or take a picture, and neither does your car.

The highest percentage overall was 47%. Out of the 130, this 47% said taking a selfie of oneself in the bathroom was a perfectly good practice.

Phones are not for the sole purpose of  people throwing up peace signs in front of their face, adding a flimsy filter, and posting to Instagram.

They were originally meant to allow people to communicate with each other over any distance, from down-the-road to across the world, not take a sepia picture of your spaghetti.

There were several other results I was sure would have a greater number of votes in favor of; taking your phone into the bathroom, texting in class, using it when speaking face to face, and falling asleep with it were just a few.

Our phones follow us wherever we go. Some of us treat our phones delicately; others apparently like to use them as weapons. So we don’t always practice good habits with our phones, but a better question is this: are we addicted?

Can we unplug?

Or is our generation – and the generations following – doomed to have lived the first part of their lives playing outside and the rest with their eyes glued to their screens?