In my Religious Studies class, we were discussing Daoism. In this lecture, we discussed vital energy, which cannot be measured physically or chemically, but it exists. I believe in vital energy because when the class listed things that drain our vital energy, someone said social media, and I understood.

I began thinking about my various social media and realized I spend HOURS on Instagram at a time, just getting sucked deeper and deeper into peoples' lives who I don't know or care about.

This is very draining to my vital energy because not only do I waste way too much of my life, I find myself constantly comparing myself to strangers who are fabricating their lives on the internet, which is completely unhealthy.

Frequent Instagram users go throughout their daily lives making sure to take the most "aesthetically pleasing" photos. People use Instagram to exaggerate their lives to look better, for the most part. I found that my Instagram is not an accurate representation of who I am, but rather a bunch of photos that make my ordinary life look extraordinary.

I also deleted my Instagram because of finsta. If you haven't heard of finsta , it's a private Instagram account where people post things that wouldn't be "aesthetically pleasing" or appropriate on their real Instagrams.

I was a part of the finsta culture and I found myself oversharing things to people I don't really even know that well and I thought, do I really need to share every detail of my day with my Instagram followers? The answer is no. If something is really that important, I can just text or call my friends.

Maybe you don't need to delete your Instagram? Maybe you use it completely healthily and don't have an addictive personality like yours truly. However, I have found that I am using my time more efficiently and am getting to read a lot more and I'm working harder on my school work. I'm cultivating my vital energy and not wasting it on social media.