It's Good to Unplug

Do you remember how life used to be without social media constantly distracting you from your day to day routines? I remember how it once was without it and sometimes I miss those days. They seemed to be a little easier.

There were no feeds to keep up to date on, no jealousy of others' adventures, and no distractions from life. But, I can’t picture life without it now. My life on social media now is about as basic as it gets! I am all about it but when I need a break, I need a break!

My Life on Social Media:

I use social media daily including Instagram for keeping up with my friends, Facebook to stay in touch with my family, Snapchat to communicate with my long-distance boyfriend, and Twitter to make me laugh. I am even using most of these social media sites for one of the classes I’m taking right now!

It is constantly around us, but I try to spend no more than two hours a day on social media as I have set up my screen time app on my iPhone. It only lets me use social media for two hours and then after those two hours are up, it locks my social media apps.

Therefore, I roughly only spent 14 hours a week on social media, which I feel like is a lot.

My Personal Social Media Use Vs. The National Average:

According to the Entrepreneur, on average, teens spend nine hours a day on social media. Nine hours! That’s crazy.

YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens. and fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone!

It is also stated in a study done by Pew Research Center that 45% of teens say they're online almost constantly. That's almost half of every teenager that is on their phone constantly! That's insane!

I’m definitely below that average time spent online.

I think part of the reason that I'm not on my phone constantly is because I keep myself so busy with school and basketball that there isn’t that much time for me to be spending nine hours on social media a day. I also don’t think that nine hours a day is healthy.

Social media is great, but I could be using those seven other hours to be doing other things I enjoy like being outside, hiking, or taking photographs.

Where compared to some of my friends, I’d say they use it a lot more because they don’t like to unplug as much and I get that. I’m not disagreeing with that.

For me, I know when I need a break and when not to Snapchat every single thing I do in one day. I don’t rely on it where I feel like sometimes they do.

There are times where I need a break from the online world and have to look up to see what’s physically around me right then at that moment.

Sure, you can go back and look at things you have posted on your social media sites to relive a moment, but sometimes simply remembering the memory of a certain time is more satisfying for me.

It's Okay to Take a Social Media Break:

Social media is something that’s never going to go away, at least not in our lifetime. It’s something that can be very beneficial but also toxic.

It’s good to know personally for yourself how much you need of it and to know when you need a break.

Keep in mind that the next time you feel like social media is controlling your life, know that it doesn’t have to. It doesn’t define who you are as a person and it’s okay to take a break from the online world.

Trust me on this one, the outside world isn’t so bad itself. It's good for your soul to unplug every once in a while.