Do people complain that you can’t stop staring at your phone? Is your phone the first thing you reach for when you wake up and the last thing you look at before bed? Have you neglected a responsibility because you were too busy staring at your phone?
If you said yes to any of the above, then you may have a problem, but don’t we all. Chances are that if you are reading this article, you not only have at least one or more forms of social media, but you also probably found this article through one of those platforms.
Social media is fantastic for connecting with others as well as sharing our lives with people we may or may not get to speak to every day. However, when I know that you got up at 8:00 a.m., worked out for an hour, ate lunch with your BFF, tweeted through your entire lecture, ate dinner with your boyfriend, and then had a Netflix marathon, I know too much. If you are an over-sharer take a second to ask yourself, does that girl that I sat next to in a class freshman year that I’m still Facebook friends with really care that I am eating a bagel for breakfast?
At some point, people decided that Snapchatting or posting pictures of an event was more important than taking in the moment of being there and experiencing life. Pictures are great, but if the only reason you are photographing or taping that moment, is so that you have proof or for some other personal validation, or even just for the Insta, then priorities may need to be reconsidered.
This goes for being overly focused on how many likes a post has. If you garner self confidence from having a certain number of likes then that is a real problem. Sure likes are great, but you are not a better person because all of your posts have more than 200 likes. Additionally, no one likes being told to go like someone’s picture. Is it the worst thing in the world if you don’t hit a certain number? The less you worry about likes the more free you become. Also please note that people can tell when apps that make your skin smoother or you skinner have been applied; please use these with caution.
I am in no way saying that social media is bad, but the amount of time we as a society dedicate to staring at screens is getting out of hand. Let’s focus more on what we have and less on what the internet is showcasing of the lives of the people we follow.
