Don’t get me wrong, I loooove social media. I could Snapchat for hours, Twitter and Instagram get me through boring days at the hostess stand at work, and Facebook is great for connecting with my sorority and family, but I can’t help but hate what social media has made of this generation.

So much of what we do these days is based on social media, or sadly, is for social media. As I scroll through my phone each day, I can’t help but notice everything I see is similar, if not the same as, the post before it. Did you hike Fossil Creek or Camelback because you wanted to or because your Insta account was lacking those infamous pictures? How many pictures did you have to take of the box of donuts you spent way too much money on? We use filters and “candid” laughing poses to get the perfect picture to post. People can buy followers and likes on pictures—yes, using their own hard earned money on something as pointless as a number. And we almost always have our Snapchat open and ready to Snap a video of our friend doing something cool that our followers probably won’t watch all 10 seconds of. While I am guilty of some of these as well, it’s scary to think that we are so concerned about our online presence that we begin to lose who we are as individuals.

Next time you’re out to lunch with a friend, don’t touch your phone. (Trust me, your food won’t care that you didn’t take a Snapchat of it before you ate it). There are far better, more rewarding things then captioning something “If you didn’t Instagram ______, then did you even do it?” Because yes, you did and those who are close to you will care about that whether you post a picture or not. Stop living life for something so small as social media, and start living it for you. After all, trying to impress other people through an online app is anything but, well, impressive. Don’t do it for the Instagram, my friends. Life is short, go out and experience it without the thought of the post after your adventure is over.