Since the beginning of social media, people have tried to glorify their lives by creating the illusion that it is literally picture perfect. It began back when Facebook posts were a long, detailed description of what we did that day (along with a series of pictures that matched the post). Now, people have edgy, aesthetic Instagram themes with punny phrases for captions.

People spend countless hours debating on what picture to post, what filter to put over the image, what silly caption to write, what time to post it– all to get a ton of likes.

Is this really what matters to us right now?

Unfortunately, it is, and I believe that this is a huge problem that we are all guilty of. People are spending so much time trying to create the ultimate internet persona, instead of focusing on growing their own personal character.

Social media was created not to spend hours upon hours of time scrolling, but to keep people connected when they are not together. However, nowadays, you can see a group of people together and they are all on their cell phones.

It just does not make sense to me.

It is the largest distraction from real-life communication and real-life emotion.

Most of the time, if we are feeling bored or down on ourselves, we do not get up and change our attitude to make ourselves feel and be better; we resort to our cell phones as a distraction for instant gratification and entertainment. We scroll, compare our lives to someone else’s, and feel bad about ourselves yet again.

We do this even though we all know that the person who posted the happy picture on their social media still has their own struggles and battles that they face every day– just like we all do. It is unfortunate that we now have the ability to escape and run away from problems facing us in the real world.

It is a toxic, continuous cycle.

But despite all of this, we can still solve this problem. I challenge everyone to limit their screen time drastically. When walking to class, keep your head up and smile at strangers. A smile is powerful.

When you are with family or friends, put your phone away completely, soak up every conversation, and be in the moment.

And when you are by yourself, take a nap, read a book, or do your favorite hobby. Don’t rely on a screen to feel happy or content.

All of these things will allow us to be happier people, learn more about ourselves and others and be able to regain a personal connection with our lives, our relationships with other people and the real world.