Look away from the screen, and reconnect with your fellow humans.

This past decade, I’ve watched them take over the streets. Absorbed in their devices, their eyes only occasionally dart from their screens to momentarily assess the obstacles around them. They are not always successful in this. More often than not, two phone-gazers will knock into each other, making them look like human bumper cars — the rubber-rimmed carnival rides of childhood. Usually, they barely grunt apologies at one another — which they won’t hear due to the noise-canceling headphones. Sometimes their eyes don’t even unlock from their feeds to acknowledge the accidental interaction. They just move on, no doubt to collide with more human bumper cars until they arrive at their destinations and stare into another, larger screen. Their invasion is out of science fiction, or maybe Kafka.

In an age of unprecedented, sometimes inescapable, connection via technology, many of us have managed to disconnect from one another. Like the frog in the pot who slowly boils as the temperature rises, it happened incrementally. First we cut ourselves off with our earbuds as they blocked the human din, and gave those around us the visual signal that we were not listening.

Then came the screens: As we cocooned ourselves in texts, Snapchats, Facebook messages and tweets with people around the world, we inadvertently blocked contact with those immediately near us. Was it inevitable that as the need to stay constantly connected professionally became the norm that some part of our lives (mainly, the living it part) would be sacrificed to compensate?

Romantically, the swipes, winks and favoriting we did to reach out to another person have made many even more hesitant when it comes to making approaches in real life. And how, after so much communication at a remove, are we supposed to know how to respond? Some of our personal bubbles have insulated us to the point where we walk through life buried in technology, bumping into one another and unable to emphathize. I’ve had enough. In 2017, it’s time to reconnect with those around us.

We live in divided, frequently lonely times and we’re not helping by allowing ourselves to experience the world primarily through the plastic rectangles we cling to. The prescription for the affliction comes in phases.

First, pry the machine out of your gnarled hands. You may have to enlist the aid of another person if your thumbs are too bent and triggerhappy from too many years of touch-screening, but don’t be discouraged. Likewise, know that the feeling of incompleteness this separation causes is normal. Even if you can only remove yourself from this technological appendage for short periods (baby steps) you may still feel phantom pangs of where it once was. Through practice, and patience, it will pass.

Next, remove the earbuds. That sensation in your ears is normal: It’s called hearing, and if you get good at doing this when people are

speaking to you, it’s called listening. If you then also speak to the person addressing you, this is what is known as conversation. Think of it as an IRL version of the messages you’ve been sending on your phone.

Now that you are not staring into the blue light of your technology, your eyes will readjust. Your neck will naturally also find a new position, one that brings the head up and directs your line of vision to what’s in front of you. When the neck regains complete mobility, it will also once again rotate, and your eyes will follow. This is called looking, and if you take the time to observe something your eyes have noticed, this is the beginning of seeing.

What is it that you’ll see, exactly? Everyone’s experience will be different, but in the right setting you may see other people who are doing the same thing that you are. It’s an exercise you can try anywhere: Start on the street, then work on implementing the technique in other situations.

As you look, listen and notice the fellow inhabitants of planet Earth you may find yourself inclined to acknowledge them. Start small: A nod, a smile, a bit of eye contact are all easy places to start. If you’re brave enough to eventually speak, this could lead to communication, which once upon a time didn’t only happen in social platforms. In other eras, people were social directly and it worked for a surprisingly long time. It’s all part of engaging, which will eventually pave the way for reconnection on a more ambitious scale. Now that you’ve mastered the basics, here comes the hard part. Be brave. Use this new engagement with your immediate world not only to observe it, but to rejoin it.