Currently, or even during summer break, I wouldn't say that I am or was particularly addicted to my phone. Most of the time, I would use it for calling, texting, or checking my email. I know, boring right? Since (I'd say the beginning of high school,) the two most used social media apps for me have been Instagram and Snapchat. I started sharing less and less when college started, simply because I didn't find the need to. However, I didn't delete the apps because I still liked to stay updated on my friends, share memes, or post my articles. So then what was the problem?

Whenever I was bored or didn't feel like working, I would always turn to the explore pages and waste at least an hour just scrolling. I hated the regret of not having done something useful in that time, especially since it is such a mindless activity. Because of this, I decided to delete both apps with the hope that I would be more productive and use that time more wisely. I deleted them right before classes started, but ended up getting no changed result from my little experiment.

Even though I was not spending time scrolling through social media, I ended up still being less productive through other means. Whether it was through watching YouTube or reading Buzzfeed articles, I realized that for me specifically, social media wasn't the problem. The problem was in my choice to be unproductive. I couldn't blame my wasted time just on mindless scrolling. I had to optimize it by holding myself responsible for choosing to do something worthwhile. Now that I've written it, it might seem like a simple message or idea, and it is. The choice to go through with it, however, is much harder, especially in this transition from summer break to a new semester. Though I now know what to do differently, I won't redownload Instagram and Snapchat just yet, at least not until I judge my own improvement.