One of the best things about society today is social media. It allows us to keep in contact with people who we may not see all the time and share aspects of our lives with people. All the great things about social media that make it so beneficial can also sometimes be the worst part of it. That constant contact and being able to see what people are doing all the time can lead to a huge fear of missing out or FOMO as it is more commonly known. I just want to constantly be involved in everything. It really stinks knowing you missed out on something fun.

As a result of that feeling, I took a social media cleanse recently. No Snapchat, no Instagram, no Facebook, nothing. Granted it was only a week which is not a very long time, but it was still one of the best feelings in the world. Not being on my phone constantly honestly helped me become so much more productive in school. Assignments that had previously taken me an hour to complete took me almost half the time. I did not realize how often I would check my phone while I was studying. What I always intended to be a quick glance would easily turn in to a 10-15 minute Instagram scroll. Instagram is a bit like a black hole, you just sorta get sucked into everything that is happening.

I think we sometimes forget how dependent we can become on social media as a source of affirmation and happiness. But what people post is what aspects of their life that they choose to show. Life is not always picture perfect. It can't always be fun and games, yet some people's lives really seem that way based on their social media. The more time I spent on my phone looking at how great of weekend people were having while I was at home studying kind of became a downer. Sitting at my desk writing a paper is definitely not as fun as going out on the town.

I have also discovered that when I am out doing fun things with my friends we are all so focused on taking that perfect photo that we lose sight of the fun we are actually having. Like yeah, it's great to look good and get lots of likes on a photo but it's not worth the stress. The perfect picture does not exist at least not in my eyes. I seem to find a flaw in almost every picture I take. Focusing more on the moment and less on the totally Instagram worthy picture is the way to go. Being off social media helped me live in the moment and have more fun by focusing on. the adventure rather than the appearance of it.

Social media is meant to be a perk in life, not something negative. Sometimes taking a break from it is the best thing to do.