In the spirit of the Christian tradition, to me, Lent is a time to “give up” something that is hindering my relationship with Christ. This is intended to be a challenge; something that I cannot do alone and therefore will need to seek the help of the divine, thus bringing me closer to God.

Although the purpose of Lent is to honor the sacrifices of Christ and strengthen my relationships between God and humanity, I (and I’m assuming plenty of others) like to view Lent as a great excuse for major lifestyle changes. I like to think of it as a second chance at a New Year’s resolution. Of course, this is not to belittle the true meaning of Lent which is to reflect on the suffering of Jesus — but in this modern world we live in, I am guilty of using Lent as a scapegoat to better my life for my own selfish reasons.

With that said, this year I gave up my social media accounts. That’s right, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, even my beloved Snapchat. Here’s why I gave them up: to be blunt, they were taking over my life.

I have owned an iPhone for less than 2 years, which relatively speaking is not a long time. I have also tended to pride myself on not being “one of those people who is addicted to their phone.” It is now clear that I was telling myself a blatant lie. I am addicted to my phone, very much so. Over winter break, I was lucky enough to be in Europe visiting my aunt. Europe. And found myself constantly checking for wifi anywhere we went. Even my aunt commented about my habits.

That experience was a huge wake up call to me. I came back to school and began to notice that I could not even walk from one building on campus to the next without staring at my tiny screen. I would catch myself mindlessly scrolling through Twitter during class — classes that I pay for to learn. In my opinion, this is getting out of control. That is why I have made the decision to do away with these useless apps that occupy so much of my time and replace them with something a a little more enriching.

So for the remainder of Lent, I’ll be following news apps instead of Twitter accounts, painting pictures instead Instagramming them, and

writing about my life instead of posting it to Snapchat.

Life is short, and the world has entirely too much to offer for me to waste time staring at my phone. This Lenten season I will be writing about and reflecting on my social media hiatus. I have high hopes for the outcome of this experience. I anticipate learning a lot about myself over these 40 days, as well as strengthening relationships with the people in my life and with God. I can’t wait to see what the rest of Lent has in store for me this year!

Disclaimer: I am aware that Facebook is a form of social media. In order to post articles I will be using my account for what I have deemed "productive purposes."