The last time you sat down for dinner with a friend, what did you do? Did you talk and give each other your full attention? Or did you check your smart phones for Twitter updates and take a photo of your meal to upload to Instagram?
For a lot of people, it would be some variation on the latter.
Using gadgets to maintain our friendships and relationships is increasingly inevitable.
While some people believe this is a bad thing, University of Wollongong convener of digital media and communication Ted Mitew says we don't need to eliminate technology from our lives, but find a way to balance social and face-to-face interactions.
"This is always a subjective choice, there is no one answer fitting everyone," he explains.
"Myself, for example, I need to be able to sit with people and go for a coffee, so for me, being able to talk to them on Facebook is not a substitute. This is something everyone needs to balance for themselves."
It is often argued connections made online are less meaningful than physical interactions. Mitew disagrees, arguing that these "latent ties" already existed in our life, such as the nod and smile we share with neighbours in the street.
"The same thing happens online, but because we have the capacity to have much larger networks, it takes much more time. When you like something on Facebook or someone's status, you maintain a latent tie in terms of your social network.
"People say social networks are so shallow - true. But most of your interactions in your physical, local world are also very shallow."
Mitew says greater integration of the online world into real life will eventually make it hard to separate the two, but for now taking breaks from technology allows people to examine their habits.
Bianca Venuti, the founder of Social September, doesn't want people to give up Twitter. Rather, she wants us to see where we can enrich relationships by meeting up.
The awareness month has two parts: a disconnect, stepping away from technology for a little while, and a reconnect, getting together with friends and family to raise money for the Reach foundation.
Several celebrity ambassadors are taking part, including rugby league player Sam Burgess, who is abandoning Twitter for the month, and singer PJ Lane, who has decided to have internet-free days each week.
Venuti is disconnecting by keeping her phone in her handbag during social situations and reconnecting by hosting an Italian cooking class for friends.
"We don't want to be anti-social media at all, we love social media, but when we take a break we realise how nice it is and how important it is to have and make time for those face-to-face conversations and face-to-face catch-ups with the people we care about," she says.
Sign up for Social September at www.socialseptember.com.