Walk out into the hallway between classes, and you’re practically guaranteed to swim in a sea of cell phones. Step foot into any Starbucks, and you’ll be greeted by a mass number of MacBooks and tablets. Take a drive in any neighborhood on a particularly glorious day, and it’s no surprise the amount of iPods beating with the music of a good exercise routine.

It has been said that our generation is “technologically dependent” and, to a certain degree, obsessed. But after careful consideration, it’s for good reason. Yes, a majority of the day is spent on some sort of technological device and, while older generations might not understand the reason for it, we certainly do.

Right now, we are starting to live in “prime time” – we are graduating, starting college, getting jobs and stepping into the (gasp) real world; and this is the time when everything is important, beautiful and noteworthy. Our refrain to the generations ahead of us: If you were starting the rest of your life right now, wouldn’t you want to document every piece of it too?

Instagram is scattered with documentation of food we’ve eaten, cars we’ve driven, grades we’ve received, colleges we’ve been accepted to, family we can’t live without, friends we’d die for.  The reason for these self-absorbed bookmarks is that these are the beautiful things that make up our lives – the days it takes to get to the future that doesn’t quite understand us.

Today, a celebrity might have retweeted you and you should screenshot it – that’s not only scream-worthy, but fifteen years from now, it’ll make you smile. Or what about the cute barista who wrote his number on your coffee cup? Definitely snap that, it might be the first of many.

Those who aren’t part of our technological revolution might struggle to understand why we chronicle everything that happens to us, but it’s simple; when we finally get to the future we are working so hard to get, we are going to want to remember all the little things that helped us get there.