In hindsight, I’m sure she regrets it, since it really wasn’t that great of a word.

My girlfriend, Jill, and I frequently play Words with Friends on her smartphone while waiting in line, eating lunch or just relaxing. It’s a great game to play, as there are no time constraints or hard rules to remember. However, the game turned into a very frustrating experience for me one afternoon when the phone froze.

Panicking, I pressed the back button a couple of times, just to discover a web page that had our exact board on it. Jill was cheating at Words with Friends!

Horrified, I wondered if I would ever be able to play the game with her again. Cheating is made very easy, as there are plenty of websites online that provide “tools” for people playing this game. The game made me miss the days before smartphones, when cheating at Scrabble meant looking into a physical dictionary to see if a word was legitimate. Although she could have gone to her laptop and done the same thing, her phone allowed Jill to cheat quickly and easily. I see the phone as the enemy here. If Jill had to physically go to a dictionary or pull out a laptop, she would not have committed this atrocity.

In the bigger picture, this experience reinforced my decision to not have a smartphone. Sure, it would be fun to play games on it and have directions constantly available, and it would be convenient to check my email when I am away from my computer, but those perks are not enough to make me break down and buy one.

Unfortunately, the great power that now is kept in our pockets is negatively affecting people. These smartphones are in the process of taking over our lives; they are making us less human. Once your phone begins to read directions out loud to you, you slowly lose the ability to figure out directions for yourself.

And once you lose the ability to do things by yourself, you lose control over your own life.

In elementary school, one of my biggest problems with math teachers was their policy of not being able to use a calculator and having to show all work. When bombarded with whines and complaints about this, the teacher would quickly respond by saying that you don’t carry a calculator with you at all times.

But now that even simple phones have a calculator built into them, I understand my teachers’ sentiment completely. In order to learn how to do complex tasks well or do simple ones quickly, you have to learn to do things completely independently.

People can be at the complete mercy of their phone. Although it is a problem with all phones, it depresses me to see people spending their time at a group dinner with family and friends on their phones. It takes much effort to sit down and have a simple conversation in person.

To me, there is very little that is emptier and more saddening than a screen, be it a TV, phone or computer screen. These devices have a devastating effect on our humanity.

Despite what this column might seem like, I am not advocating getting rid of all technology. All I am saying is that we should make sure we are using it wisely. The greater the power an object yields, the greater the power it has to control people.

I am not immune to the overconsumption of technology. Too much of my life has been wasted doing the very things I am advocating against.

However, important questions have to be asked about the effect progress in technology will have on this generation and the next. The most important of which is deciding whether or not “progress” always is necessarily positive.

Avoiding the parts of technology that are hurtful, and limiting use of technology that cannot be avoided, is a great start in freeing ourselves from the control these objects have over us. Too much of anything — Facebook, television, smartphones, Internet — absolutely is a bad thing. The means of moderation in technology differs from person to person. For me, I need to avoid owning a smartphone altogether, or else I wouldn’t be able to contain myself.

But whether or not you own this technology, it is very important to take a step back and realize more is not always better. A cellphone that came out a year ago as one of the best in the world still will be a great phone after its replacement comes out.

Buying countless amounts of upgrades and new technology will turn into a cycle that is nearly impossible to break.

Bottom line: these things absolutely will not make you happy. Money and the things it buys will not make you happy, just as cheating at Words with Friends will not necessarily make you win.

It is time we as a society realize that.

Piotr Buniewicz is a guest columnist at The State News and an elementary education senior. Reach him at buniewicz@msu.edu.