People should not be on their phones at hangouts. It takes away from time with their friends or family. What even is the point of hanging out with people if all are going to do is be on your phone? What do teens even do all the time on their phone? When you hangout with a group of friends, you should be able to talk and have fun with them rather than sending videos to each other. Using the phone can make people feel disrespected and unimportant and our phones make spending time with people less enjoyable but it can enjoyable when you immerse yourself in the experience of hanging out with other people.

Phones have become part of our every day life. Many people are addicted to our phones, but this is not a good thing. The phones keep many people so addicted that they can’t even face their own friends and talk to them they hang out.

Say you and your friend go to the park to hang out and all you do is sit on your phone and watch TikTok. However, your friend might want to talk to you about their life and school. That makes them feel unimportant and disrespected. The Network states, ‘When you’d rather spend time on your phone than with someone you care about, you’re telling them that you’re uninterested in them and that you don’t care about them or their time.” I think if you want to keep them as your friend then you should talk to them and show that you are interested in whatever they are talking about and not be rude by being on your phone.

On our phones, we can scroll and scroll videos. Sometimes, I can so immersed into it, I forget I am around people. When, I realize I am around people, I feel like I don’t want to be around them and I just want to be on my phone. Recently, a study has shown that the more time people spends on their phones the more they think being around people is less enjoyable. The study was in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology states, “Afterward, both groups answered questions about their enjoyment, phone use and overall dining experience. Their responses showed a clear dip in pleasure among the phone users — who, just by virtue of having their phones on the table, ended up using them for an average of 11% of the meal.” This just shows how the phone distracts and makes people feel like they can’t enjoy whoever they are around.

However, some people say that being on your phone during at hangouts isn’t rude or disrespectful. People view the phones as part of their and other people’s social life. They also use their phone to track responsibilities. So when they are on their phone at a hang out, they don’t consider disrespectful. However, A Greater Good Magazine says, “Phubbing ( the act of ignoring someone in a social setting to focus on your smartphone or mobile device) also shapes our casual friendships. Not surprisingly to anyone who has been phubbed, phone users are generally seen as less polite and attentive.” This harms the friendship in a bad way as the person does not feel like they are important.

What can we do to fix this? Whenever you are with you friends you can create a phone pile and put it somewhere else where you can’t access it unless you need to. This is what I do with my friends.