I deleted social media for a little over three weeks now and let me tell you… it has been the best decision I have made for myself in a while.

It's a weird feeling especially at first. The first two or three days I always felt the need to check my phone and somewhat thought I was missing out on stuff, but slowly, and then all at once, it all sort of came together.

I could leave my phone in my room and go do things for six hours and not feel the need to check my phone every two minutes.

When I first started telling people about this the reaction I constantly got was "Is everything OK?" or "Are you OK?" as if it was a bad thing, and many people told me that I was "brave" and that they "don't think that they could do it." Let me just tell you that some of the people saying this were fully-grown adults, you would have thought I was talking to mostly millennials.

I will admit, I was not in the best spot mentally when I initially decided to give up my social media, due to my depression, but that is not the main reason I decided to do it.

I simply wanted to "unplug" and be more present in the world around me. I didn't want to continue living my life through my iPhone. I wanted to experience it for myself, and let me tell you once I did this, I started to notice the smallest things and started to do the things I never thought I "had time" to do.

Like most college kids I am a relatively "busy" person.

I go to school full time, have a job, and I am working on my future career by starting my own business. So things such as reading a book, watching TV, hanging out with family, friends, and just relaxing are not things I would typically "have time to do".

To my surprise, however, I was oh so wrong about that!

You would be SHOCKED at how much time we actually spend on social media.

I myself thought I was only spending five minutes here, to max 10 minutes there on social media, but it turned out to be 15 minutes here and 25-30 minutes there AT A TIME! Now figure that into your WHOLE DAY…. THAT'S A LOT OF TIME spent on social media!

So yes! I do actually have time to do those things! Instead of scrolling through Instagram or Facebook for 20 minutes, I'm reading two chapters in my new book by my favorite author or reading a news article ( Yes, I know! I said the news!) or health and fashion articles too! Or who knows? Maybe I'm watching an episode of Friends or even grabbing a cup of coffee with one of my best friends, even if it is only for 30 minutes.

During this time of "Unplugging" and taking a break from social media, I have been surprised by how much we truly depend on it, for connection and approval.

I have had friends almost get mad at me it seems for doing this, saying things like "Well how are we supposed to talk now" or "I get it, you just don't want to talk to me anymore" when that is honestly not the case, not even close.

I have had to remind them that, "You have my phone number… we can still keep in contact, we can talk, or text. We don't have to always talk through Snapchat."

I am honestly proud of myself for doing this.

Not only am I connecting with the world and people around me, but by doing this, my mental health is starting to get better and I am learning who and what I want to be.

Yes, I still do have my social media accounts, but I deleted all of the apps off my phone.

I will at some point re-download them, but for now, I am happy and content staying "Unplugged".