I've been using social media apps since I was in seventh grade, and if I could go back, I would stop myself entirely.

Don't get me wrong, the connectivity and endless doors opened through social media can be incredible, but this all comes at the price of a generation of people unable to have an old fashioned conversation and are obsessed with their online appearance.

You go out to eat and see a room full of people taking food pics, scrolling past memes, or just staring at their phone because they're bored with the current company. This epidemic has taken away the need for face to face socialization and the ability for people to entertain conversations without taking ten minutes to think of a clever text back.

With the new data surfacing about the possible long term effects of this obsession, people have begun to be more conscious of their phone usage.

Unfortunately, just simply reducing the amount of time spent on technology does not eliminate the adverse effects of seeing everyone's picture perfect lives frozen on a screen in front of them. People have the ability to hop on Twitter or any other platform and are able to see what everyone is doing, where, and who with.

This glamorized capture of peoples lives doesn't always tell the whole story and can stunt the growth of relationships by formulating a superficial basis on which people meet or perceive each other as. For instance, the most dreary unedited Instagram feed can be run by a sun ray of a person who is living their best life, and in contrast, a shiny flawless feed may be hiding a person barely able to conjure up a genuine smile.

Undisputedly, this issue is becoming more substantial as the age of technology continues to blossom and fosters the ability to imprison our society with the hypnotizing promise of progress and contentment. In the future, our society may further develop solutions to manage this, but in the meantime, just be aware of and understand how your social media use can affect you and everyone in your life!