We both know that our relationship is a bit on edge and I am going to be honest, you are the cause of many of the problems. You provide me with communication, social media, music and basically anything I could imagine. I am truly grateful for that. But you and all of your friends (i.e. computers, televisions, cameras etc.) are beginning to evolve and take a much bigger role in my life than I intended. It was only five years ago when sixth graders were ecstatic to find out that they were getting their first cellphone, but now there are children who demand the newest iPhone at the age of eight.

You irritate me. You constantly beg me to notice you with all of the notifications and messages that continuously pop up on your screen. Whether it’s an e-mail, Snapchat or a text message, you sound like an angry bee that buzzes in my ear on a summer day. It is annoying. You make me feel obligated to respond within seconds, and I don’t like it. You should not be one of my major priorities and demand every moment of my spare time to be focused on you. Yet every day I continue to let you and I hate myself for that. I have a lot more important things that I could be doing with my time.

The worst part is that you will continue to make things more difficult for me. You make it almost impossible to ignore you because of your constant advancements. All of the new applications and music make it very difficult to overlook you. I understand that all of these advancements need to be done; just look at all of the competition you have! Who doesn’t want the best quality, most affordable, and most advanced phone? I know I do. But once again, I go back to thinking of all the ways that you take away opportunities from me and distract me. I know that you are truly not worth it, yet I continue to go back to you.

It hasn’t even been five minutes since I last checked you and I am probably still thinking about the last message I received or the song that I was listening to. You are so addictive that I am beginning to rely on you for almost everything and anything. When I misplace you I feel helpless because, for those few seconds, I think that I lost you, only to find you in my back pocket.

I thought high school was going to be a time where people were supposed to meet and learn about their peers, and build long-lasting relationships. Unfortunately, in so many of my classes, this is very hard to do because I use you as a scapegoat in order to avoid conversation with others. I wish I did not have you as a distraction. I would so much rather spend my time meeting new people. I no longer want you to take control of my life. I am putting you down, and lifting myself up.