A simple football game gave my friends and I memories that we can still remember. To this day we still talk of memories from that night, especially since that’s where we met some really fun people while cheering on a team that we knew nothing about. However, most teens today complain about not having and making enough memories. The secret to making lasting memories is to NOT STAY INSIDE ALL DAY! Making memories doesn’t come from sitting on the couch and scrolling through TikTok. Great memories come from going out, meeting new people, staying in with your family or friends, and for some going on a bike ride around town all by your lonesome. Nobody remembers a day sitting around the house because it’s something that occurs much too often. Memories take action and there’s no action without movement.
All of us dream of big trips and parties, but what about the mundane tasks of the day? Why don’t we dance our way to the garbage can and laugh at our own jokes? Being able to romanticize the little things makes the simple times more engaging and exciting. Also, being engaged with those around us makes the time spent together more valuable, and that means looking at the people around you, and not just through a phone screen.
You may be thinking, “Wow, just another old person ranting about how our phones are ruining our lives.” No! I’m a teen of seventeen years and I am realizing that my grandparents that are in their 70s have better memories than I do. I believe part of that has to do with the amount of time I stay glued to my screen. They didn’t have anything to distract them from what was right in front of them, but we do. That gives us the greater responsibility to choose for ourselves how we’ll spend our time.
If we want to make memories, we have to be willing to put our phones down. In an article written by Kathiann Kowalski, “Teens’ cell phone use linked to memory problems,” Kowalski states, “Teenagers who talk on the phone a lot, and hold their cell phones up to their right ears, score worse on one type of memory test. That’s the finding of a new study. That memory impairment might be one side-effect of the radiation that phones use to keep us connected while we’re on the go.” Looking back we’ll want to be able to tell the next generation about the good times of our teen years, and the less amount of time we spend on our phones, the greater our memories will be.
Can’t think of anything to do? Put the phone away for a long enough period of time and I’ll bet you can come up with something. Our minds were made to create, and we have a whole world beneath our feet. Let’s use it and make more lasting memories.
– by Emma Wilde, student at Piute High School
Feature image caption: We would have much better memories if we learned to get off of our phones once in a while and enjoy the things that are right in front of us. Courtesy Cottonbro Studio.
Contributor
Emma Wilde is a contributing writer from Piute High School. From time to time, The Byway receives submissions from high school kids, and we almost always publish these submissions. Sometimes the youth surprise us with their ideas, but it is certainly a joy to see what this generation has to say about the world and their place in it.
Read more from Emma Wilde in her graduation speech, First and Last.