If you know me, then you know that physical fitness is a crucial part of my diabetes self-management. I may not be able to fix my pancreas, but I can keep the rest of me in good working order, and that helps my A1Cs to stay in shape. I belong to a large gym, and all in all, I really like it. They have a lot of nice amenities, classes, and options to satisfy just about any fitness interest. What I’m less crazy about, though, are the giant flat-screen TVs all over the gym. They usually blast a live music video feed that often becomes counter-productive as I have a hard time working out to their questionable musical selections (give me some good old classic rock to work out to any day). In between these songs, the gym also broadcasts various announcements, workout tips, and general health advice on the televisions to give members encouragement and some confirmation that their sweat and efforts are not in vain.

I was in the gym late last night, and as sometimes happens, my mind began wandering in the direction of the TV’s in between sets. Normally, I’m not too interested in what’s being shown, but this night something up on those large screens caught my eye. There was a PSA-like message that read:

I stopped and stared and pondered. With this being Diabetes Awareness Month, I wondered if that explained the timing of this message. If so, kudos to my gym for taking up the cause. We need all the help we can get.

As I finished my workout, I started playing number games in my head. I mean that was a staggering projection—1/3! That meant that if I went to see a movie, the first 10 rows of the theater might someday all be filled with diabetics. Or, if I went to an NFL football game, about 23,000 fans might be checking their blood sugar in between touchdowns and doing the wave. Or, 7 of the usual 21 people ahead of me in the grocery store checkout line would all be anxiously waiting to purchase the quality foods (one can only hope) they’d selected. Well, you get the point. That’s a ridiculously high percentage of our population to suffer from diabetes.

Why, I had to ask myself, are we moving in the wrong direction? Now, granted, most of those would be type 2 diabetics. And we know that a lot of type 2 risk can be eliminated by good healthy living. But isn’t that what we’re moving away from? I think so, and I think I know why . . . well, at least partially—Technology.

Here’s a word of warning: I’m about to climb up on my soapbox.

Technology may improve certain facets of our lives, but it may be ending them early, too. To see what’s going on, all we have to do is take a look at our kids. A 2015 study by Common Sense Media showed that teenagers are spending 9 hours a day on their smartphones. That far exceeds the average full-time job! And, if we assume that 8 hours each day are spent sleeping, then that means that more than half of our kids’ active lives are spent staring at devices. When I was a kid, I spent 9 hours a day playing outside.

But gee, Tad, you’re like 48 and old. The world has changed. You can’t expect everyone today to live like you did way way back then.

OMG! Yes, the world I grew up in was different: It didn’t have a diabetes epidemic or a compulsion to stare at small screens.

I have an interesting vantage point for this debate; I work in the outdoor toy industry. Do you think business is thriving? Do you think eager young buyers are continuing to fuel a long-term sales uptrend? Just take a wild guess at where our industry has gone over the past several years.

I’ll tell you—it’s plummeting! And why? Because kids today don’t want to go outside and play and just be kids. No, they would rather sit inside and tweet and text and play Candy Crush. This is the direction we’re moving, and it isn’t just our children who are implicated. We adults are just as bad and even guiltier as we’re setting the example.

Okay, my soapbox just turned into a mild rant.

For all the benefits gained from our device technology, I think there is a greater loss that accompanies them. We’re learning to communicate better with our devices, but we’re losing the fundamental desire to engage in direct human interaction and communication. We adults don’t want to go outside and play either. We sit inside falling prey to a sedentary lifestyle, ordering pizza from our phones that can be delivered in 15 minutes. When we need something, Amazon Prime gets our orders to us in 48 hours as we race through of our uber convenience-oriented lifestyles.

Turn off the phone and stare at its screen for a moment. What you will see is the reflection of someone who may have forgotten the importance of slowing the pace down long enough to take good care of ourselves, to connect with our real needs.

We’ve forgotten how to live.

I have to confess: I, too, am guilty. Yes, I have a smartphone and often find myself giving it too much of my life, time that should be spent with the people I love the most—my wife, my 5 children, and my friends.

I know our smartphones are a permanent fixture of our world. I also know that one of the biggest means of increasing diabetes awareness is going to come through our devices and their link to social media. But as much as we need to increase awareness of diabetes, we also need to become self-aware of how our technology is affecting our lives and our futures and contributing to poor lifestyle choices that can lead to diabetes.

A ten-year-old now will be 43 in 2050. I have a ten-year-old daughter. I wonder what the real statistic will be when she arrives at that year. To avoid having 1/3 of our population afflicted with diabetes, we must exercise, educate, and examine. We must exercise and take better care of our bodies; we must educate others on how a healthy lifestyle can reduce diabetes risk; and we must examine the choices we’re making each day. We don’t live in a vacuum. What we do affects the world around us and sets an example whether we want it to or not.

We have 33 years to change that future. Let’s combine the best of ourselves with our abundant technology and make it happen.

–Tad