Social media has become increasingly essential to everyday life. By essential, I mean that it is somewhat of a necessity to stay up-to-date with society. Recently, I decided I was going to deactivate my Twitter account. I hadn't wanted it in the first place, so I figured it would be easy to just delete it and move on. Boy, was I wrong. Not only could I not bring myself to delete it, but I actually had some anxiety about it. Needless to say, I still have my Twitter (@kelssbellz if you're interested).                  

Social media isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't necessarily a good thing either. It's kind of like sweets. Sweets are good, but only in moderation. If one overindulges, one can become addicted and find it impossible to stop consuming them. Social media sites are the sweets of the modern technological world, and most of us are addicted. It wouldn't be bad if we could regulate our usage, but the problem is we don't. We binge and use in excess, like drug addicts. In order to gain control over this problem we need to understand both the pros and cons of social media usage. Here are just a few off the top of my head:

PRO: We can readily connect with people.
With the advancements of social media we are now able to connect with people from all over the world. Someone from London can connect with someone in Los Angeles in a matter of seconds. People can have group conversations and make friends through similar interests and hobbies, and with people who they are not likely to have met otherwise. We have access to more and more communities, making it much easier to meet and develop relationships.               

CON: Our relationships are more superficial.
Genuine relationships are hard to come by nowadays. One may have hundreds of thousands of followers on sites like Instagram or Twitter, but that isn’t likely to be an accurate estimation of how many friends you actually have. We are a generation that has begun to value our "public" over our real, true companions. How many likes or comments you receive on a photo or post is nothing compared to being able to call up a friend at two in the morning to talk and having them answer.

PRO: Keeping in touch with distant family.    
Social media makes it a million times easier to keep in touch with relatives. I wouldn't know many of my relatives without it, and for this I am always thankful. Through the use of it, we can keep members of our family updated on our day-to-day lives, as well as big events, like graduating or winning an award. It is much faster and trust me, you're family appreciates being kept in the loop. 

CON: We stop living life in an attempt to record it.
Whenever something big happens what is the first thing everyone does? They take out their phones/tablets/cameras/etc. No one takes time to live in the moment anymore, and if they do, it is intentional (i.e. camping, retreats). We only put our social media usage on hold when decorum calls for it. We are constantly documenting everything with our phones, and we even make jokes about it (if you don't Instagram it, did it really happen?). It isn't a joke, though. Most of society does not fully experience anything, and if we are ever to get back to some form of simplicity, we have to take our social media usage seriously.