WEB EXCLUSIVE

Over the past few years, social media has quickly become a bigger and bigger influence in teen’s lives. Social media sites such as Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok consume the little free time teens already have. 

In fact, according to a recent study on Psychology Today, “over 20 percent of students use social media for over five hours per day.”

In my experience, it wasn’t always like this. In middle school, I used to check Instagram periodically, mainly when I was bored and used Snapchat only to play around with the filters. 

However, since entering high school, and sophomore year especially, my screen time use has doubled, and checking my phone and various apps has become a part of my daily routine. Whether it’s checking my phone first thing when I wake up, wasting time scrolling through Twitter, or feeling obligated to reply to texts immediately; I’m addicted as well.

It’s unclear how the addiction begins, but apps like these make it too easy for anyone to give in. The notification is always right there, your friend is available to talk right now, should you answer or hold off until you’re not doing homework? A simple solution is to put the phone in another room, but even still, it’s hard not to wonder what you could be missing. 

Setting time limits for phone use has helped me with this. As much as you might tell yourself, “I’ll put it down in a minute,” nothing is more effective than the app just shutting down after a certain amount of time. 

Overall, as the consumer, developing a social media addiction isn’t necessarily our fault. App developers make it too easy to get hooked, with the endless scroll or streaks on Snapchat. However, it is our responsibility to learn how to use social media in a healthy way, without prioritizing it over real life.