Last night, while I tucked myself under my covers with heavy eyelids, I noticed myself doing something that unconsciously snuck into my nightly routine. It seems like every night I am so exhausted from my day, but once I lay in my bed, I can’t help but scroll endlessly through my social media accounts.

You name it, I’ve got it. The three accounts I refresh on an hourly basis are Twitter (which I’ve tried to delete for weeks), Instagram, and Snapchat. I do have a Facebook account but lets be real, who actually makes time to scroll through their News Feed despite having pure boredom?

For a couple of weeks now I have found myself being extremely hypocritical. For example, just the other day as I scrolled through Twitter, I noticed that one of my acquaintances had tweeted six times about her relationship drama within a five minute time span. I had a look of disgust - although I am not sure if it was triggered out of bitterness or annoyance – “get a life and stop tweeting about it” I thought to myself. Wow, look at me. Maybe I am the one who should be getting a life. First of all, I shouldn’t be judging the amount of time someone else puts towards his or her social media accounts if I am probably attributing the same amount. And secondly, why am I letting myself get annoyed by these tweets when I have both the options to unfollow her or to stay off of the site that is triggering my irritation?

I am sure it is safe to say that most of us wish we didn't have any social media accounts, but because we do, we have trained our minds to make it a part of our daily ritual. It is scary to think about how much time we put into keeping up with the daily lives of our 'friends' and family via social applications. Of course, it is always good to stay in touch with friends and family with the help of today's technology, but there are a few things that make me hesitant about it.

Being that social media is obviously social, we are allowed the freedom to “follow” or keep up with whomever we choose. Although this may seem harmless, once I found myself 36 weeks into an Instagram page of someone I have never met before. This had been triggered by the emotions I had had while looking through this user's photos. I caught myself having feelings of jealousy and envy over her photogenic candids, luxurious lifestyle, and enormous amounts of likes on her posts. I don’t even know this person; I don’t even know if these photos are actually real; I don’t even know if her face is real. Is the time I am wasting on her page worth the feelings that I am triggering? Probably not.

I guess the point I am trying to get at is that, when dealing with social media, it is important to set a barrier between your real life and your social media life. Of course, the amount of time being wasted is an obvious negative factor on this topic, but there is something deeper going on within your mind as you stare wide-eyed at your refreshed twitter feed. The media has a way of controlling our thoughts, which will eventually lead to controlling our actions. Not only does the media have the power to do this, but your peers do as well and the frightening thing is that we are all letting it happen without full realization. Social media has the power to influence our thoughts ranging from our body image to what music we listen to.

Don’t let these social media applications control your thoughts on your life, and do not let them have power over your actions. Understand that how you are perceived on social media is not how you are perceived in the real world. Take mental notes on how much time you spend socializing on the web and ask yourself if there are other things you could be doing that might not just keep you busy, but are actually relevant to your thoughts, interests, and well being. Instead of commenting on a stranger’s photo with heart eye emojis, go find your friend and tell them how thankful you are for them. Our generation, especially, needs to make an intentional effort to put our phones down every now and then and experience our lives and cherish the people who actually care about us - before it is too late. It also doesn’t hurt to turn off our phones just to get a healthy amount of sleep in.