As teenagers, we all tend to place our phones and social media as one of our top priorities; no matter how much we deny it. I’m not saying every teenager is addicted to their phone, but the majority of us do spend a lot more time on it than we should.

Much of our generation is based upon technology. Many of us get our daily news from televisions, computers, phones, etc. In school, we now write essays and complete assignments using technology such as Macbooks, Chromebooks, and iPads. Since a lot of our daily life is consumed by technology, we don’t even realize how much we use it when we don’t need to.

I probably don’t take breaks from social media/my phone in general as much as I should, but when I do, it is really refreshing. It allows you to be less concerned about what’s going on in everyone else’s life and instead focus on your own. When you’re not constantly jumping at every buzz of your phone, you have a lot of time to do things for yourself.

Taking a break from your phone also allows you to be more productive and get more things done. I think we can all relate to the struggle of trying to do our homework and use our phones at the same time. When I am taking a break or even just putting my phone in a different room for the time being, the time it takes me to complete my work gets cut in half. Stopping every five minutes to check your messages is very distracting and will slow your work process down drastically.

Although you may feel as if you don’t use your phone too much, try thinking about each individual moment you pick up your phone in one day, and see if you change your mind. Obviously, there are moments where you need to use your phone to make a phone call or something important that can only be done with your phone. There are many moments where we just mindlessly scroll through social media with no intention at all. I agree that it can be a way to connect and communicate, but everyone should have some breaks from it to refresh themselves and focus on themselves and their surroundings.