We are in the age where people do not communicate through letters anymore. We communicate through the process of a selfie or a Facebook post about our amazing vacation to Florida. Everywhere you look you are seeing people on their phone and taking photos and posting on Instagram. So the question is, do you think it is time to take a break from social media?

I was recently out to a restaurant (shocking I know I actually have a life) and I noticed that most tables people had their phones out and they were taking selfies and on Snapchat and not really having a genuine conversation. I also heard a lot of the conversations start with "Did you hear" which means that there will be some gossip involved. I thought to myself, are people to addicted to their phones and to the different social media outlets?

After doing some research I found out that over 158 million people use snapchat, which an average user opening the app 18 times a day. There are more with Instagram, the total is 800 million people. That is crazy! Now the benefit of social media is that you are able to connect with people that you might not have seen or heard from in a while, but there are also some downfalls. Like I have stated in previous articles, people can be bullied and harassed by these social media outlets. I would know because I was a victim of it.

So do people need to take a break from social media? I call it the one week challenge. For one week you either cut your social media time in half, or you don't use social media at all. I know to some of you that might be difficult, but I have had many friend who did this challenge and they said it made them have more free time to spend with family and friends. Now to be able to limit the amount of time you use the app (if you go that route) there are different time limiters that you can download on your phone and laptop that once you hit the limit it will not allow you to access the site.

To me, I feel that it would be beneficial for people to do this. This would give people more time for in-person contact, not selfie or posting on Instagram contact. Trust me when I say this, the one week challenge will open your eyes to a whole different world. After that one week, you might even not use these social media outlets as much as you did before. So try it for yourself and tell all your friends to try the one week challenge.