Well, Grand Valley State University, it’s that time of year again; the time of year when friends, relatives and enemies gather around the television to watch one of the biggest sporting events of the year, sip on a couple legal beverages and critique the craziest advertising campaigns businesses have to offer.

It is that one, unique time in American culture that allows for sports fanatics and regular old folks to bet on whether the Star Spangled Banner will be under or over on length, or put down $10,000 on who will win a coin toss.

Much like every widespread, national pastime in the Information Age (re: presidential election campaigns, broadcast news, reality TV) what was once one of the largest television spectacles of the year has now been transformed into a smartphone-checking, tablet-viewing, computer-searching cacophony of technology.

How will you be watching this year’s Super Bowl?

If you are between the ages of 18 and 34, chances are you will be watching the game with the help and guidance of at least one other device.

In an annual study done by Grand Rapids’ own multi-platform branding firm Hanon McKendry, researchers found that for those sports-lovers between ages 18 and 34, 93 percent will watch the game on TV. 59 percent of that same demographic will watch the game accompanied by a computer, 47 percent with a smart phone, and 39 percent on a tablet.

But what does that mean for you and I? The same thing all of this rapidly advancing technology has meant in every other facet of our lives as Millennials – you can chose to let the over-the-top surge of information develop into a kind of OCD that shrouds every ounce of your human participation, or you can spend your Super Bowl in the moment.

Because isn’t that moment what this is all really about? The nostalgia and security of gathering around the TV screen with friends, taking in each play, and high-fiving eachother until our hands hurt and our voies rasp. So, this Super Bowl, if you let technology be the thing that drives you and your friends apart, remind eachother that there’s nothing out there more simple and more sincere than football, TV and beer to bring you back together,