We all rely on connections to survive. When you hear that, what does that make you think of? Relying on people, places, or maybe social media. We all connect in some way, shape or form. Maybe it’s time to stop or find a new way to connect, with ourselves and people. Social media seems to be slowly taking over our lives and we don't even realize it.

It’s sad that nowadays people are constantly glued to their phones. I mean why wouldn’t you? Everything you could imagine is on it. If you have a question about something you don’t know, ask Siri. If you want to see where a certain person is, you can look on ‘Find my Friends’ or on Snapchat. If you want to see what a person is eating today, go on Facebook or Instagram. There is always something for everything. We constantly are checking up on everyone's daily life to see what they are doing and what they have been up to. I can’t say that I’m not guilty of doing this either. It’s almost like it’s an addiction. We have become more fascinated with other peoples lives instead of just living our own.

It’s hard to not compare yourself to people, social media makes it so much more difficult. I don’t know about you, but I always see these beautiful girls on Instagram, with tan skin, a perfect body, and always in an ‘artsy’ destination. We all want to be and look just like these girls, whether we say so or not. Looking to see that some people have over a thousand followers and get at least 600 likes on their pictures. All for what? You can’t honestly tell me that you know 600 people. Suddenly, you have became important to everyone else. If you didn’t get at least over 100 likes, you have to delete it because you worry that your life may not seem as interesting as the others. When realistically, you probably do know 100 people. Those are the people you talk to or they're your friends and family. People now find it impressive if you get a lot of likes on a picture. I remember once listening to someone contemplating on posting a picture because it may not get over a thousand likes, like how the last one did. I’ve also heard someone say they didn’t want to post their picture yet because it wasn’t a good "posting time," they needed to wait because apparently more people go on Instagram at a certain time. Who knew... And why does it matter? Why can’t people post what they want and when they want to? We shouldn’t be concerned on what people think or if we will look important to others. In high school and college you can see what this does to a person. You’re either popular or unpopular based on followers, likes, retweets, etc. Always wanting to be doing and looking like someone else.

Looking around the room, I guarantee you will see someone on their phone. Maybe they’re killing time, or checking their emails, or receiving a text. There is always a time and a place for everything, as they say. The next time you go out to dinner at a restaurant with someone, look around and see who is engaging with the person they came with or if they are just sitting on their phone. I don’t see a purpose in going out at all if all you’re doing is checking your phone. You’re engaging with everything and everyone else in the world, besides the person you came with. I miss when I was younger and didn’t own a phone yet. I remember at the time when I was the age of 12 begging to get a phone because everyone had one. Now I’m thankful that my parents made me wait. I see kids at the age of at least seven or eight years old with a phone. It’s not just any phone, its an iPhone. They will be having complete different experiences from what I had. From the age of six to 13 when I was with my friends prior to social media and phones, we would be always finding something to do. Weather it would be playing outside, having countless sleepovers, doing our makeup and hair for fun and so much more. Now when we hang out, most of the time we sit in silence if we have nothing to say and look on our phones. Talking about people and what we see on social media. There are no secrets anymore for anyone. Word travels fast in that way.

I think people would be happier without social media. I don’t know about you, but I wish it could all go away most days. Our lives would be completely different and we may never know what it would be like. We as people need to find a control. New ways to connect to people. Spending more time having new experiences with people and not feeling pressured to post something immediately on Instagram or Twitter or whatever it may be. Leave the phone at home or log off to catch yourself a break, because we all need that from time to time. There are so many simple solutions to social media and phones that we don’t even realize because we're too caught up in it all. We need to be more unconnected to be connected.

Now ask yourself, how much time do you spend on your phone?