When I first saw this video earlier this year, I thought it was condescending and brutal. Now, I don't think it's harsh enough. In our quest to have the latest and greatest tech and be on the most popular sites, we've forgotten how to have real lives.

Let me be the first to throw a stone: I am tech obsessed. My iPhone is glued to me all the time. Everywhere I go I take my gear bag filled with my iPad, Laptop, and enough plugs and cables to wire a small business. I am rarely disconnected. And I've found that I'm living my life through a 4" window. It isn't reality, but captured moments staged perfectly for mass consumption via m favorite apps. My life can be summed up in square Instagram snapshots, and status updates that are 140 characters or less.

And that is exactly what 'I Forgot My Phone' points out so brilliantly. It follows a day with our main character who is just trying to live her life, but those around her seem much more interested in life filtered through their smartphones.

There are moments in this short film, written by Charlene deGuzman & Miles Crawford, that are especially poignant like the bowling alley when she's trying trying to get a high-five, mimosas with her friend but her friend is much more interested in the perfect Facebook pic, and the final insult at the end when she turns off the bedroom light and her boyfriend turns on his phone.This short film is exceptionally well done and the social commentary is perfectly bitter and sad.

The American society has become so tech obsessed that in our quest to connect with other human beings we've actually lost the ability to connect with other human beings.

Part of my gig as the Digital Managing Editor of Townsquare Media - Twin Falls requires that I be connected and available as much as possible to manage this site and the content that flows through it, and what goes out over our social media sites. But in the past few months I've seen my personal Facebook and Twitter usage decline, I put my phone on silent when I get home at night, and on the weekends I do my best to ignore it altogether.

I'm not going to claim that it's made my life instantly better and more wonderful, but at least I'm present in my own life.

I won't ever cut the cable. I know me. I know how much I like technology, but I've learned lately that there is a time for tech and there's a time to turn it off. Lets all practice turning off our phones and who knows what we may discover?

Maybe those things that are most important to us aren't in a Facebook status update, or a tweet, or a chat window... perhaps they're sitting right next to us. Or perhaps they're five years old and playing in a pile of leaves you just raked up.

Terry's son Jack playing in leaves. Image: Terry Morgan/KEZJ.com
Terry's son Jack playing in leaves. Image: Terry Morgan/KEZJ.com
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