By now there's almost no shame in running to your phone as soon as you're bored, and truth be told, sometimes it's not as shameful as we think. It's what you choose to do on your phone that for some dictates whether or not your life is wasting away on a thin electric screen.

If you're like me you might go and watch makeup and skin care tutorials, or the occasional compilation of vines. Then once you've done that for an hour or two and you set your phone down, there's this indescribable feeling of nothingness and you realize that you've wasted your time.

This happens to me almost everytime I'm bored and look for Youtube and the Internet for a solution. I remember a time when I used to love being active and went outside every day (which kind of makes me feel like a grandma now that I don't do it as much anymore). I used to practice hobbies like artwork and music religiously instead of letting the wear and tear of a busy school life slow me down.

So I decided to "unplug" from my electronic devices for a day, here's what happened:

I had become a little too dependent on my phone. It shames me to say that I had no particular idea what to do at first. So I just finished some homework and read a book. Then as the time passed me by I got more into it and started to dig into my old hobbies again.

I laid out any and all of my materials so that I had as physical options in front of me to help motivate myself. Once I picked out what I wanted to do I put some music on shuffle and tossed my phone away from me. I started to paint a picture that I'd had in my mind for a while. I paid careful attention to detail and tried to get the lines as straight as possible for the first layer.

When I finally looked up from my work, four hours had passed! I can't say how astonished I was as I looked at the time and the work I had done, wondering how something so simple took so long. However, I found that instead of feeling disappointed at how long it took me to do such little work, I felt relaxed and accomplished at how well it came out when I dedicated the time to do it properly. I might have even improved my skill a little bit.

Overall, what I learned from this experience is that it's okay to want to turn to your phone for when you're bored, but that I should dedicate some time to doing the exact opposite every once in a while. And for some that could mean a day out of the week, or an hour or two every day.

It's up to you to truthfully decide when you're spending too much time with technology (aside from when you absolutely need to) and when it's time to unplug and rediscover some hobbies.