Social media has always been a controversial subject. This generation of teenagers tends to defend it and find all of the good qualities and reasons it is beneficial. That is most likely because we have always known of it. Teenagers now, were probably given cell phones before middle school. There was no hoping or wishing for them, they were expected. We grew up looking at smartphones and tablets and computers. For our whole life, we’ve been able to just Google the answer and see what everyone was up to at the push of a button. Considering we have never known otherwise, I wonder, when will we delete social media?

It takes a lot of courage and self-reflection to look at yourself and realize you are addicted to social media. According to Morgan Meyer, a Licensed Professional Counselor Intern at Counseling South Austin specializing in women’s issues, the satisfactory feeling that comes from using social media provides it with the platform to take over your life. The positive reinforcement distracts us from boredom or anything going on in our lives.

When sending your morning Snapchat streaks is more important than getting to school on time, social media has already become a huge problem. If you feel the need to go out with your friends just to take pictures, it’s a huge problem. If you post pictures of your meal before even getting the chance to smell it, it’s a huge problem.

“If I didn’t get a lot of likes on a picture I don’t know if I would delete it but I definitely wouldn’t be happy with it,” says Sydney, a sophomore at Pat-Med.

Self-validation is a huge part of using social media in the wrong way. Nobody should ever feel they have to post a picture and get at least five hundred likes to feel good about themselves. Considering that is what most people are doing nowadays, it is threatening to our future as adults in the real world. Will our generation still depend on likes and comments in ten years? Do we know how to live without it?

“I don’t know, I guess I’ll just delete it when I am too busy for it,” says Molly, senior.

However, in my opinion, we should all try to live without the screens starting now. Just see how long you really can go without it. There are some people who would not be able to last a day. When thinking about your adult life and possible future family, does your Instagram account make an appearance or can you do without? Will you still send “streaks” of your future children to high school friends? Our generation is the first to deal with this question and I can only hope we become wise enough to make the right decision.