Social media use has rapidly increased over the last few years, and will continue to rise with every new phone, app, or site that comes out. Recently, I've stopped using my phone as much, and spent less time engaging in social media, and I can honestly say that I feel like a much happier person. I'm not sure if it's due to the fact that I am not wasting so much time on my phone, and scrolling through social media sites, or if I've just started to live life a little more. I'd like to think that it's a combination of both, and that they affect one another.
I used to waste so much time scrolling through Instagram, watching Snapchats, and browsing my Facebook newsfeed, when in reality, why did I even care? Why do we care so much about what other people are doing? Why do we feel like we absolutely need to look at these different forms of social media, to see what others are doing with their day? Why is it necessary to have our phones in our hands 24/7?
On top of social media use, we have become obsessed with texting, waiting by our phones for someone to reply. Trying to make plans back and forth when it would be 20 times easier to pick up the phone and call that person. We take 10 minutes to reply to a simple text because we have to hand craft the perfect response.
Anywhere you look, people are on their phones: in class, in their car, in a restaurant, etc. People no longer take the time to stop and appreciate where they are, and who they are with. Dinners with friends are often dinners with friends on their phones. People have become so obsessed with these different forms of social media, whether it is observing or posting. Life has become a competition of likes, an obsession of getting the perfect picture, a fascination of seeing what other people are doing, a waiting game for people to text back. We sit on our phones scrolling through Instagrams of beaches, delicious foods, and fun events and we wish that our lives were more like the lives of those that we follow. While spending so much time focusing on what others are doing, and waiting for replies, we are wasting away our own lives.
I will admit that I do still use these social media sites and text very often, but the difference is that I no longer feel the need to. I text someone when I have a question, or when I want to tell them something, not because I need to constantly talk to someone. I go on Snapchat when I'm bored, not to see what other people are doing at that moment. I post an Instagram when I like a picture, and I want to share it with my friends, not to see how many likes I can get. I go on Facebook when I get a notification, not to stalk people's profiles and pictures.
That point I am trying to get across is: you need to put your phone down. I wish I could calculate how much time we waste on social media and useless texting in a day, I'm sure that number would be ridiculous. Let's just say we waste about an hour a day scrolling through social media. That's 60 minutes of time you can better spend on so many other things. Go work out, go talk to someone in person, take a nap, do that thing that has been on your to-do list for two months, get some homework done, go for a walk, basically do anything, and it will be dramatically more productive than sitting on your phone scrolling through social media sites, where you don't even know half of the people you're connected to.
A while ago, my phone was broken for a day and that's when I had this realization that I have wasted so much of my life focused on my phone. I was out of contact from the world and I couldn't go on social media, yet I wasn't worried, I was actually relieved. I felt less stressed, no one was bothering me with text messages, and I wasn't wasting away my time on social media sites. Some of the best memories I have are from times when I didn't have my phone with me at all. Instead, I was focused on the present, who I was with or what I was doing. You'll never look back on a time when you were texting someone and think of it as a great memory, but you will in times that you are actually living in the moment.
I am not saying to delete every social media app from your phone, and never text anyone back, but instead, I'm asking you to make a conscious effort to use your phone less. The next time you eat dinner, leave your phone away from the table. The next time you go on vacation, use your phone only to take pictures. The next time you are in class, actually pay attention to what is going on. Put your phone down, and start enjoying the present, before it all slips by you.
