In recent years, social media has taken a grasp on younger generations and has become drastically more prominent in people’s daily lives. 

Most people are guilty of checking their phones as soon as they wake up, responding to messages at red lights and getting distracted from schoolwork on a daily basis. I’ll be honest; I even got distracted by my phone while writing this story. 

If you are an iPhone user you can go to settings and look at your screen time. I am certain you would be shocked to see how much time you spend on your phone throughout the day.

Think about all of the better activities that you could do with the time that you spend on your phone. You could learn a new skill, read a captivating book, spend time with a loved one or even go on a walk.

Personally, I would like to push myself to spend more of my free time outside. I feel that doing this would benefit my mental health as well as my physical health, should I choose to go for a walk or run. 

With the increase in political division spreading on social media, a majority of kids my age have grown to be bitter towards their classmates.

Online arguments stem from this, as well as prejudice based on someone’s political views. By reducing the amount of time spent on social media, I believe everyone would generally be more patient and accepting of each other.

The surge in social media usage also correlates with poor mental health. Constantly being subjected to edited images of perfect looking people living seemingly perfect lives can have a bigger impact than you may think.

It almost seems like people are competing for the title of “best looking Instagram account” or who can reach the highest number of followers first.

For what? What do people gain from this? Does it affect your life and the impact you leave behind?                                                                      

Think about what you want to be remembered for. You only have a short time on this earth, so you should enjoy everything it has to offer by going for spontaneous adventures, visiting someone you haven’t seen in a while, reading a book that shapes your mind and so much more.

Life has so much to offer — soak up everything you can and make each moment intentional. If you are too distracted by technology and social media, you could miss out on important memories.