what would i do without my cell phone?

Hello friend.
I would really appreciate it if you'll read this and not look away to glance at your cell phone for a moment. It would be nice.

I would like to start off by saying that I do not own an iPhone. This was my personal choice. I love touch screen phones but I also love to have one that registers tactile touch. I keep my nails relatively long and text with them. I feel that it increases my precision.
Anyways..

I feel like people value IRL relationships less and less as of late. Thanks to technology, smart phones specifically in this case, we have the ability to be connected to the internet 24 hours per day. We can skype from the car and we can stalk the facebook feed while in class. Granted, this can potentially be useful. We can look up directions if we get lost or we can send an important business email. But if you ask me, it's gotten to the point where this is just ridiculous.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I am helplessly addicted to the internet. Between my YouTube channels, my secret blog, my Twitter account, my DailyBooth account, and Skype, I am pretty much always connected. But I still crave real human interaction. I love to spend time with my friends. I love to talk to someone over a meal or coffee. I love hugs and friendly physical contact.
But I feel like people are opting out of IRL connections and are moving more towards a life lived entirely online.

Earlier today I was at a meal with Courtney, Kelsey and Britteny. Britteny recently got the new iPhone 4, Kelsey has had an iPhone for about a year now, and Courtney got an iPhone in March. Now I would like for you to remember that I chose to not have an iPhone. For an entire hour, the only conversation that was had was about iPhone apps, themes, etc. And that's only when there was conversation! At one point, Courtney was on tumblr, Kelsey was showing Courtney her new iPhone theme, and Britteny was on facebook. I sat and picked at my lunch, silently.
Is this what time spent with people is going to become? Are we going to completely forget how to be social creatures except through social networking sites?

The main reason why this bothers me is because I have friends who I would give up anything just to spend one day with them, in person. George is a bit obvious, as we have become best friends without ever being able to hug or shake hands even. But also Nicole and Michael. I haven't seen either of them since around my birthday and I miss them terribly. Yes I can IM them or text them, but it's not the same as actually being with them and spending time together. And I know that all three of these people want to spend time, physically, with me. Unfortunately, we just aren't able to do so. Yet here are three other people who I get to have that physical real life interaction with, and they don't actually want to. They'd rather be on their iPhones connected to some online society. Again, I love online societies. What do you think Nerdfighteria is? But there is still a real life component. Gatherings, meetings, VidCon. If you ask me, it's the real life connections that make something like Nerdfighteria so incredibly wonderful.

We, as humans, are social creatures. We're not meant to do absolutely everything through some kind of virtual network. Look at how well it turned out in Wall-E!