Sofia Colignon | News Editor

If you are reading this, chances are, you have some sort of social media platform. Whether it’s Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter or all of the above, you most likely use it to communicate with friends, send them memes, tweet your feelings and share your best picture yet. But, lately, a new question has arisen among adults who worry their kids spend too much time on social media, —is social media really healthy? Is it really fun and harmless or does it actually hurt kids indirectly?

There’s not a right answer to this question. So many things have to be taken into consideration first, like the kind of person using these platforms, or maybe a certain situation they might be dealing with. Some people love social media—for them, it’s like a hobby, and maybe even somewhere they get their confidence from. And that’s okay—as long as it makes them happy and don’t bother anyone else. Some people, however, don’t like sharing their life online, even if it’s just among close friends. And that’s also okay—it’s their choice, and there’s nothing wrong with that either.

The problem is when people start shifting from posting their life on social media to their life completely depending on social media. They spend hours a day refreshing their Instagram feed, Twitter timeline, worrying about likes and followers and becoming more self-conscious about things they might have not even given any thought before, just due to the fact that they’re seeing so many different people taking cool trips and doing great things in their life.

First of all—nobody posts about the bad things going on in their lives. I mean they might, but it’s not like you see a picture on Instagram of someone crying super often. People will always post about the good things—their best photo, without showing you the other 58 they had to take to get one they liked, a competition they won, without showing you the hard work and sacrifice that got them there, tweets about happiness and love, without telling you about the battles they might be fighting on the inside.

So get off your phone. Take time to appreciate and love your family and friends—the people that are always there for you. Sure, social media is cool to see what your friends are up to and for your friends to see what you’re doing, but that’s all there is to it. And don’t sweat too much over what picture you post—we all have acne, we all struggle to find good lighting.

Social media is fun to use as a hobby, but it can really be exhausting when your whole life depends on it. Just remember that, whatever you do, you are so much more than a photo or a tweet.