When Lent rolls around every year, there is always the question in my mind of what I’m going to give up for the next 40 days. Whether it is part of your religious practice or not, giving up something that you enjoy for 40 days is a good practice of willpower.
I can remember as a child, I would always give up soda, or candy, or ice cream—some type of junk food that I loved. I can remember how excited I would be Easter morning to have a piece of candy after 40 days of waiting.
This year was a little bit different. The option of giving up more food wasn’t really one I felt I needed to tackle, and contrary to my little brother’s great idea, giving up brushing your teeth isn’t quite an acceptable option.
Enter social media.
My parents have always given me a hard time for the obnoxious amount of time I spent scrolling through my phone. I never thought they had a point, until I deleted the apps and looked around me.
As much as I hate to admit, it might actually be an issue.
To be fair, I don’t think there is actually anything wrong at all with social media. In fact, I think it can be a really good thing. It’s a unique opportunity that modern technology allows us to stay connected as a community and keep up even if we aren’t able to see someone everyday.
The problem lies in the constant scrolling that takes place in our community.
It’s not an issue that no one has heard before— we obsess about the amount of likes, followers, the right filter. To me, that’s all a little petty. That’s not the real root of the issue.
To me, the real problem is that we are missing out on what is going on around us. I am very guilty of having my head buried in my phone and therefore missing everything that is going on around me. The posts are going to be there in an hour, the conversation I could be having might not be.
I like social media. I enjoy scrolling through Instagram, seeing what my friends at different schools are doing, keeping up with my family and friends at home. The opportunity to not have any access to social media has led me to believe that the timing is what determines the most appropriate use.
When you truly have nothing better to do, and are trying to kill a little bit of time before class, scrolling through social media for five minutes isn’t a terrible option. To me, this time is fine to do a little bit of catching up.
It becomes a problem when there are actual people around, not just the ones on the screen.
It’s only been a few weeks without social media, and I feel as though I am more engaged in my daily life. I am on my phone a lot less, and not touching it for a few hours at a time feels normal. I am more interested in the real relationships in my life and truly connecting with those people.
The point of this article isn’t to bash social media, because I really do like it. I have just found that the opportunity to connect with real people in my life is a lot more important that updating my news feed.