I am way too attached to my phone. It’s always in my hand. Usually I’m not even on it – it’s a safety blanket I just have to have in my hands. It’s like a little kid and the stuffed animal that he refuses to part with. When I don’t have it with me, I get anxiety that I’m going to miss something. What do I think I’m going to miss? An especially funny snapchat story? Logically, I know I’m not going to miss anything, but our culture has made my phone my prized possession.

For the life of me, I don’t know what’s so great about social media. Still, I can’t preach against it because I’m just as addicted as the rest of you. I waste so much time on my phone. Not only should we base our interactions not on a screen but on talking to each other, but we should stop pretending like this is a thing only old, out of touch people say. We’re lying to ourselves when we pretend that our phones only enhance our lives.  

Of course I love the benefits that come from being able to connect with people across the globe. I admit that there are certain long distance friends I wouldn’t have kept in touch with if it weren’t for Facetime and Houseparty. But it’s excessive.

The average teenager spends 9 hours a day on her phone, according to Common Sense Media. The average American spends 4.7 hours, according to Informant Mobile Intelligence.  Recently, I decided to start tracking how much time I spend on my phone with a new app called Moment. I spent about 2.5 weeks taking data. To put it lightly: I was mortified. I don’t really think of myself as a particularly “bad” addict when it comes to my phone compared to other people my age. Turns out I was right, I am nowhere near the 9 hour mark, but I am usually pushing the 3 or 4. All of this comes in little 5 minute pick ups where I scroll through a couple of Instagram posts when I’m bored.

I honestly believed there was no chance I spent more than 2 hours on my phone per day. Turns out, on days when I am not particularly busy with junior year or other things, I consistently pass that mark. My results varied a lot in that some days when I didn’t have time to sit down, I spent only 30 minutes on my phone. Other days, though, I was stuck in the house all day and spent almost 6 hours looking at other people’s fun. And I know what you’re thinking. Wow, this girl’s crazy, that’s not me – there’s no way. That’s what I thought too. I hate to break it to you, but it’s probably you too.

3 hours. 3 out of 24 hours. That is ⅛ of my day. 12.5% of my time. What could I do with those 3 hours? Who knows? If it weren’t for social media, I probably would’ve written a novel by now. I hate sitting in a room with 20 other people all talking to other people not in the room. It’s not fun. It feels lonely even when there’s so many other people around you.

And I’m tired of it. No, I’m not 80 years old, nor am I an isolated socially awkward weirdo. I would qualify myself as normalish give or take a few weird moments. I’m tired of this societal expectation that I have to be in on everyone else’s fun all the time. Can we all just embrace the awkward moments in our day instead of letting our heads immediately snap down to escape to a moment less awkward than the one we’re in?

Also, no – your parents did not pay me to write this article. I mean it. Get off your phone.