Social media is a polarizing topic of conversation today. While it no doubt brings a vast amount of good to our society, the negative impact is simply too great to ignore. Personally, I understand that social media allows us to communicate and connect in ways that were not previously possible, however, through the use of smartphones, social media is ruining our humanity. Next time you’re out to dinner at a restaurant, taking in a Sox game at Fenway, or even sitting on the couch with friends watching a game or show, take a look around. I guarantee—GUA-RAN-TEE—that around half—at least—of the people there will be staring down at their smartphones with a wide-eyed walking-dead stare, completely unaware of what is going on around them.

You see, what people don’t seem to understand is that for all the good that smartphones bring us, they are undoubtedly disintegrating our ability to act as human beings. That couple in the booth over there? Both refreshing their respective twitter and Instagram feeds, barely even aware of each other. Those sold out grandstands? Half the people are texting and liking pictures on Facebook while the other half are instagramming pictures of Ortiz standing in the box with a “#BigPapi #GoSox #Boston<3” rather than actually watching him launch another one into the bullpen. Oh and those times you’re sitting down to “watch” a game or a show with your friends? Yeah half of them couldn’t tell you the score, the last thing that happened, or how many characters are on the screen right now. That is, until they decide to peek up for a split second to ask “What just happened?”

You see, not only are smartphones stunting our ability to interact human being to human being, they’re also making us dumber. Why bother going out on a date with that pretty girl to that nice restaurant to just look at your phone all night? Why buy that ticket and pay $10 a beer when you can save money by staring at your phone while the televised game serves as background noise? Pretty soon, we are going to be reduced to a society of “smartphone operators”, only experiencing anything through the expensive handheld computers that fit in our pockets. My point is that everything that makes life worth living is being watered down or even destroyed by our constant need to know what’s happening on twitter, what pictures are being posted to Instagram, or what our friends are doing who aren’t with you that very second. Overall, while social media and smartphones do a good job enhancing our ability to communicate through an electronic screen, they do an even better job damaging our ability to interact with humans and enjoy that interaction.