I'm not an addict, at least not a traditional addict you may be envisioning. I don't depend on narcotics, heroin, or booze to function. I am a young, functioning student with priorities. However, after nearly two years of living at college, I have noticed that I am growing up in a generation of addicts. We have grown to be addicted to social media.

Each day, I get a notification reporting the amount of time I spent on my phone. I average between 5-7 hours. Considering I usually sleep for 9 hours, I spend up to half my day on my phone. Of course I check my email and occasionally google something useful, but for the most part, I scroll through the same 4 social media apps as entertainment. Social media makes it really hard to have healthy friendships and relationships. Although it is a way to stay connected and interact with each other throughout our busy college days, I find most of us feel the need to stay connected all day- 24/7. For some reason, it's hard to grasp the idea that some people don't check their phones often. Some people don't give a shit about instagram likes. Some people don't have snapchat streaks higher than 3 days. These kinds of people are unicorns in our society. I miss face to face interactions. I miss when I didn't feel obligated to check snapchat every few minutes. I miss when social media straight up didn't matter. Social media allows us to jump to conclusions that endanger our relationships although these conclusions are painfully unrealistic. Your crush didn't like your latest selfie? Feels like the end of the world. In reality, maybe he was out being a productive human being and simply didn't have the time to scroll through instagram. We seek validation through our social media networks. We should start feeling validated for other reasons. Tell a funny joke or educate a friend on what you learned in class today. Tell me a story about your family or how you got the scar on your knee. Somewhere in the midst of technological advancements, we have lost depth. We have lost authenticity and genuinity because we are too busy staring at our screens.

I sound like a harsh critic, but the truth is, something I would love to change about myself is my dependency on social media to feel good about myself. Instagram likes, snapchat streaks, VSCO republishes, none of that matters. Start making people laugh, connect with them on levels of deep empathy, encourage and help people work towards their goals. For the past five years, I have heard about movements that encourage us to put our phones down. Maybe it's time to listen.