( May 25, 2012 ) — As I slowly picked up the broken pieces of my cell phone, the only worry that ran through my mind was that my cell phone screen may be cracked. “Aww man,” I thought to myself as I realized that I had just gotten this phone only about a month before; unfortunately, like most teenagers my age, my mind was ringing with thoughts of getting a new one. That may sound selfish, but in truth it is the lifestyle we have picked. The problem with us and our first-world lifestyle is that we take things for granted. As I picked up the phone, I wasn’t concerned about not having a phone but about having a small crack on my screen. Our society has us programmed to the point that when we see people who don’t have as much as we do, we don’t even take a second to see what we have and can give. Instead, we focus more on what we don’t have. We grow accustomed to something we don’t consciously think about what we are doing. Instead of thinking ”Ohh there are people in Africa that don’t have food,” we think, “Do I want a large or extra large pizza?” We have been so spoiled and pampered to a point where instead of being appreciative of our very lavish and worldly possessions, we take advantage of them. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the United States consumes a dangerous amount of hazardous waste. This only makes us more spoiled and materialistic. When we lay down on our bed at night we fail to realize that we are lucky to have a bed and a roof over our heads. Instead, we think, “Why can’t I turn off the lights by clapping?” Our society has been unfortunately influenced by the wrong country. We follow Japan in the sense that we get the next best thing but we really should look to the countries who are not as lucky; we need to turn our attention south of the equator. We take into consideration that there are people in other places of the world starving, yet we stare at the food set before us and think “I don’t like that,” or ”I like this better.” Our first class lifestyle has given us this protective curtain which helps us keep our materialistic ways. The curtain tells us that children in Siberia don’t have computers yet when our Macbook battery no longer works we debate whether to buy a new one from Best Buy or Radio Shack! The generation from the ‘80s gave us this materialistic way of life and we have stuck to that. The big hair and gadgets of the ‘80s have made us into a society that just as eagerly grabs at things without even remembering what it was or how lucky we are to have that item.