How many hours do you spend on social media on a given day? Do you spend hours snapchatting your besties, scrolling through Instagram, tweeting on Twitter, or pinning on Pinterest? According to many websites and surveys, teens on average spend around nine hours on social media every day. How do you compare to this amount of time on social media?

The most popular social media of 2016 is Snapchat™ according to the Internet. At MHS, many students were asked to check how much time they spend on Snapchat by looking at their battery settings. The average was around two hours.

To this generation, social media is used so often it may even be considered a lifestyle. Many people are asking the question, “What am I missing out on when I sit on my phone for hours upon hours?” However, when used in moderation, social media can be good. Many people benefit from it, like big YouTube celebrities that make a living off of it, or people who are “Instagram famous” and make money off of their creative posts. There are even awards people can win for having the ‘Best Snapchat’ or ‘Best Instagram Feed.’ Even in its prime, awards like these make social media even more addicting, and they increase the desire to have a ‘perfect profile’ on a certain social media outlet.

The new trend of ‘finstas’ on Instagram have become an increasing issue pertaining cyberbullying. So, is social media cutting away at our much desired free time?

Perhaps it only does if you’re not careful about who you follow, don’t think about what you post, and/or do not watch how much time you are spending on it. Above all, it’s important to remember to go hang out with your loved ones and enjoy the Minnesota weather every now and then.