We all know that person (and it may be you) that the moment you have your greetings they are on their phone right after. Whether they are showing you memes or personal problems they are on their phone. It doesn't seem like you can have a normal conversation with them without a reference coming from social media. This is becoming a rapidly growing problem. Social media is beginning to dictate lifestyles and decisions. The screen is starting to take more prevalence than having a real-life interaction.

Ever since its emergence social media has become a significant part of everyday smartphone user's lives. If they don't have a Facebook, are they even real? Social media has come a long way and its power threshold continues to rise. Different social media platforms are now used in their own unique way to create content. Facebook has become a place of memories with family and friends through all walks of your life.

When was the last time you went through your Facebook and deleted old pictures that make you cringe? Twitter has become a tunnel into someone's inner thoughts and how they express themselves. Snapchat has become the epitome of both casual dating, picture chatting, and secret memories. And Instagram has become our favorite show and tell application. Social media just has a way of bringing us all together and spreading us all apart. Innovative ways such as infinite scrolling have been implemented to keep our eyes glued to our screen. With the prevalence of all these apps and how frequently we access them, the question has to be asked.

When does it begin to control our lives?

I don't know many personal stories about social media dictating someone's life decisions, but I do know that there are people that look to a group consensus for their decisions. Making a decision on your own is hard, but it's not necessary to enable others to know your private business and have a deciding factor on what you want to do. Yes, its okay to agree with an inspirational meme that may remotely relate to the situation that you are in. What is not okay is to apply the decisions that others have said they made on their social media and try to take the same actions. The same result doesn't come out for different people. You need to know what works best for you and not search for it in endless threads. A like is just a like. Don't read into it too much.

If you feel that social media (or even your phone) has a hold on you. Take some time to disconnect and go off-grid for a while. I didn't make concrete decisions to go off-grid, but when I was without a phone for a couple of months it made me realize and appreciate those around me. Learn to appreciate those around you more than you appreciate the glitz and glamour created in the social media stratosphere.