I am a sixteen year old girl currently living in 2016. I am a millennial. My peers and I are the face of the generation. Although my generation is creating new technological innovations and advancing our world, we are constantly on our phones and cannot break away from social media.  They call it social media but we aren't very “social” at all.

Calling social media addictive is an understatement. We get out of the house to hang out with friends and the second we are all together, we break away to answer an unimportant text. Soon, instead of enjoying the party, we enjoy the blue haloing light reflecting on our faces.

I remember about a year ago, I was planning a sleepover at my house. Many of my friends insisted on having it at another friend’s house. “You don’t have wifi” a friend told me. We spent the night at her house completely immersed on Facebook and Snapchat. I don’t remember any of the conversations I had that night.

Social media is a problem that is affecting my generation and the future generations to come. “Text neck” was an interesting term I have recently learned about. We spend so much time looking down on our phones, it is affecting our neck alignment.  That is just despicable.

“For every inch the head tilts forward, the pressure on the spine doubles” warns Lindsey Bever of The Washington Post. Our head weighs about 12 pounds. The average person spends about 90 mins a day on their phone. That adds up to 23 hours a year and about 3.9 years of that person's life spent on social media.
Now imagine how bad our necks are? Those statistics are just the average person. I know for myself, I spend way more than 90mins a day on my phone.

Although Social media and technology has had many perks, many argue that it has re-connected people across the world, built transferable organs with genetic technology, and has helped us capture life’s moments with the click of a button.

Just a click of a button.

The photo-taking impairment effect is the belief that you are more likely to remember a fact if you take less photos and just live in the moment.

“Taking pictures rather than concentrating fully on the events in front of us prevents memories taking hold.” Describes Sarah Knapton of The Telegraph.

Studies have been done on this and each time people are not able to remember an event as well as someone who did not take pictures. Famous Musicians like Beyoncè and Prince ban photos being taken at their concerts and events because of this effect.

We as a society become so immersed in what other people are doing and letting other people know what we are doing that we fail to see what is right in front of us.

Having a meaningful conversation nowadays means texting on the phone for hours. If we need something, we text our mom to go get it even though she is right across the room.

Social media and technology is a convenience. It is no longer about being social but shielding our views on what even is social anymore. Social media is a game we all play just to show off what we are doing, what we accomplished, or whose birthday it is. The only “friends” we need to be sharing with are the faithful and meaningful ones right in front of us.

So I encourage you to put down the phone and live in the moment. Go for a walk and notice the color of the sky and not try to put it on Snapchat.