Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; (802) 324-9538.
The Cellphone Between You and Me
Carly Stone, 17, Springfield
I don’t understand why “ghosting” is so normalized.
What happened to communication?
“Communication is key to a successful relationship” — that’s what every relationship
advice website or video will tell you,
but no one listens.
We have these devices now that allow us to communicate, and instead we use them to
play games,
and send reels in place of conversation.
It distances us,
the very thing designed to help bring people closer together and allow us to be with
people even when they are far away,
is exactly what creates the distance between them.
We need to remember how to have fun and experience social interactions without a
screen in between.
I want to be able to talk to someone without them ignoring me because of a video being
more interesting.
I want to stop worrying about when someone leaves me on “open” or “read;” those silly
little features on my phone
shouldn’t make me question if someone is mad at me or not.
I shouldn’t be staying up late to watch videos or see the latest posts of people I don’t
even know in real life.
It should be used to connect with long distance friends and family.
It should be a privilege.
Instead, we expect it.
It gets used as a lifeline,
an addiction,
when it was never meant to attack the youth and confuse the elderly.
A phone was meant to connect people,
but instead, we are connected to wifi signals and social media,
disconnecting us from reality,
family,
friends,
real people.
I want to be able to see a picture and not have to wonder if it’s AI or edited to trick the
unknowing eyes.
I don’t want to see hate comments on every video.
The internet can bring out the worst in people;
they use their screens as a mask,
cowardly hiding behind them so they can bring down the people they are jealous of,
the people that seem to be doing better in life than them.
Even if they are just like them the only difference is they were brave enough to take a
chance and put themselves out there, and the others are still hiding behind the masks.
Phones were meant for communication,
for connections,
to help this world,
but instead, they have taken away our reality bit by bit,
distanced the people,
and fed the youth lies.
