I know what you’re thinking, I’m crazy. But just go with me for a minute. If you’re anything like me, Instagram is the holy grail of social media. I could, and do, spend hours refreshing my home page, eagerly waiting to see the latest artsy posts from my friends, who, unlike me, are actually doing something with their lives. Don’t get me wrong, I love Instagram just as much as the next girl, but I can’t help but think about how much time I’ve wasted living vicariously through my phone screen.

Think about all of the times you’ve come into class, sat down and immediately pulled out your phone to get one last peak at all of your social media before you have to, *gasp*, put it away to endure an hour of not having a constant update on what your friends are doing at all times. Sometimes, if I can ever pull my eyes away from my own phone screen, I look around at my classmates and just think about how pathetic and anti-social we all look with our noses buried in our phones. Imagine how much more enjoyable going to class would be if we all put our phones away and actually spent time talking to and getting to know each other.

It doesn’t stop with classmates either. I’m guilty of this with some of my closest friends as well. Sometimes I’ll get together with a group of friends and we’ll all plop down on a couch, say a few words to each other and then inevitably begin scrolling through our phones, only stopping to show one another what we’ve found in our latest Insta-stalking venture. I cringe just thinking about it.

But it gets worse. What about when it’s time for me to post something? Well, there’s an entire process to capturing the quintessential Instagram-worthy picture:

Step 1: Gather a few of your BFF’s and shove your phone at the nearest male in sight.

Step 2: Pose, smile and act like this moment is the best moment of your entire life.

Step 3: Retake the photo at least three more times because the first picture is never good enough.

Step 4: Seal yourself off from the world to crop, edit and find the perfect filter that will maximize the amount of likes you will get on your latest masterpiece.

Step 5: Finally, post the photo and spend the rest of the night checking your phone every two minutes to see how many likes your super artsy and cute new post is getting.

Before you know it, the night is over and all you have to take from it is a new Instagram post with 100-plus likes. That’s my issue with the whole thing. Instead of living in the moment, we’re focusing all of our attention on trying to show the world how awesome our life is or how much fun we’re having on a night out, when in reality, the time we spend posting our life on Instagram is taking away from all of that. We only have so much time to enjoy being in college, and we’re wasting it glued to a machine instead of really experiencing it.

In fact, that’s the problem with our generation. Social media has caused us to become habitual creatures that need to constantly update the world on every little thing that we’re doing. It’s fine to want to take pictures. Pictures are like time-capsules for memories; I get that. But what memories are there to take away if you’re spending the entire night Instagramming it?

Here’s my advice: save Instagram for tomorrow. The pictures will still be there in the morning, but the moment you’re in in front of you is fleeting away. Turn your phone off and do something crazy with your best friends, because you’re only in college once.