I recently received a text from a dear friend. It involved the story of a 19 year old who made a pact with a friend to get off social media for a year, to make a break with what was dominating her life to see what the effects might be. The act of release from what had become an obsession — having to check-in or text nearly every moment of the day on various social media platforms — was mind bending.

We are being warned of the deleterious impacts that social media is having on our youth. Even before I posted about limiting myself to the time I spent on Facebook, I was astonished that on busy sidewalks and even ski slopes people of all ages couldn’t stop gazing at their phones. We seem to have become a nation of cell phone zombies.

This is far from healthy in so many ways, and its greatest impact is what it is doing to our social interaction. America, once hooked on cigarettes and fast food, now has gone head long away from direct relations with family and friends to interfacing with the electronic device that lays in their hands. This can’t be sensible and it surely isn’t wise.