I like to think of myself as a very driven person. If I have my mind set on something, it’s going to get done. For example, I go to the gym every single morning, even on days like Thursdays and Fridays where my schedule only lets me go to the gym at 5:30 am. The night before, I set my alarm (two alarms are needed because conveniently, my bed gets comfier when I have to get out of it), and tell myself at what time I have to leave the house. When I wake up, I fall into a hole. Yep, the social media hole. To be completely honest with you, I tell myself that if I go on Instagram for five minutes, it’ll help me wake up rather than accidentally fall back asleep. To a certain point, that’s ok, but those five minutes are never five minutes and it results in me running behind and not getting my full workout in. It’s obvious to me that my productivity suffers because of how I start my day. I also realize that Kendall Jenner’s face staring at my half awaken face every morning, is probably not the healthiest option for my mental health. It’s something I’m currently trying to get better at because the feeling of productivity is way more important to me than any post on Instagram.

But then, I get to school, where I study media production and as a media person, I am expected to be informed about what is happening in the world. What’s the easiest, most efficient way to be informed? You guessed it.

Last month, I released my personal website, “All My Girls” that works to empower female athletes, something that is very close to my heart (sorry for the plug). In order to promote my work, I have to be smart, use the strategies I’m learning at school and use social media to my advantage. But, how do I do this without getting pulled back into the hole? Is there a perfect balance I can work with?

Another worry I have is how our values as a society have changed. Nowadays, an aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed is something to congratulate someone about. We’re trading valuable, personal moments for virtual attention on a social platform. During a coffee date with a friend or a concert, we’re looking at our phones. I’m a huge concert junkie myself, (especially when it comes to Maroon 5) and for the past couple years, I have learned to put my phone down, ground myself and realize the artist is RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. It’s not every day I can witness Adam Levine’s talent and handsomeness in person, so why would I be looking at it through my phone screen? But our brains have been trained to automatically think “people need to know what I’m doing” or “how many likes will this get”. Instead of living and experiencing new things for ourselves, we’re doing it for the likes and the followers, who truthfully, will forget about your post as soon as they leave Instagram and go on Tinder.

As I mentioned, I have limited my phone use at concerts and am currently trying to avoid going on social media first thing in the morning. I’ve started to be more alert of what is valuable and good for me. Self-care, mentally and physically, has become extremely important to me, and I guess my use of social media has helped me come to these conclusions. I’m sure I’m not the only person who thinks this way and if you’re anything like me, you can be very hard on yourself when it comes to beating the social media hole. I think we have to be understanding with ourselves because this generation is the first one experiencing these things. No one has it figured out yet, so we must learn how to take care of ourselves little by little and be aware of these 2017 issues.