We live in a world where everything is going digital. We read our books online, take our classes online and chances are, if you are reading this article, you are probably doing it on a smartphone or tablet. Moving into a digital realm does not mean that we are doomed and that technology is a bad thing. Technology can be a very good thing when used properly, but we could be moving into a time where we depend too much on technology and not enough on our solid resources.

Last year, my grandmother asked for a set of books for Christmas. Growing up, I remember she always had books by her bedside. Now, however, when I go over to visit she has a tablet sitting next to her bed, where she can browse the web or read any book her heart desires. It does seem handy to have technology that allows her to read multiple books on one device, but what will happen to all of the books themselves?

When I have children, I do not want to read them goodnight stories from my iPad. I want to know that there will still be paper fairy tales to read to them with pictures and words written on the paper. As we become more dependent on getting these items digitally, it looks as though I may not ever have the chance. In 2011, the number of e-books sold in the United States made up 20 percent of all book trade sales, and in 2012 the number increased by nearly five percent.

The same situation is happening when it comes to online classes. Online classes can be beneficial for nontraditional students that have to work full-time jobs or that have to go home and be with their families, but it also comes at a cost. Students that are taking classes online will not get the same experiences and relationships with other students and professors that they would get if they were in the actual classroom.

The Internet is not as dependable as we would like it to be. Too many times I have been taking a test or a quiz and the Internet has stopped working, or I have had a technical difficulty. We cannot live our lives wondering when the Internet is going to stop working.

We have to find a balance between the real world and the digital world.

I will be the first person to tell you that I would never give up using my cell phone or my laptop, but we cannot let technology consume our lives. If we give up the real-world things that we have, we could just as well lose them. We cannot afford to stop reading paper books or to transition into solely using online classes. 

Technology is a wonderful tool, but that is exactly how it should be treated: as a tool. Learning to live with technology will be important for learning how to prosper in our future careers. There is no mistake that we have to keep up with the changing times, but we cannot let technology consume us.

We should keep hold of the things we find important in life, such as hand-written letters. Hopefully spending time with people face-to-face will never become a thing of the past. In a world that is becoming more digital than ever before, we cannot become robots driven by technology. We are humans, and we rely on person-to-person relationships not a cold piece of plastic filling the void.