All of my life I have heard the good and the bad about social media. 

I’ve heard that it’s a place to share with your friends and to find new ones, a place that allows you to connect with new people from all over the world. A place to share your interests and learn new things. But It’s also a place of harm, cyberbullying, stalking, body shaming, discrimination and everything in between. 

We mindlessly scroll and scroll for hours, trying to fill our time as we wait for something or purely because of boredom. But why? Why are we so consumed by watching other people’s lives?

I’m not entirely sure of the science behind it, but here is why I think I fall into the scroll hole. 

Influencers, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, people from high school that are getting married or having babies and soft-launched relationships cover my feed. I love watching people tell stories about their day or from their past, showing their new dog or what they got at the store, what new recipe they learned and if they are getting married or breaking up. 

I think that for others it might stem from FOMO (fear of missing out) or maybe all of it is out of pure boredom. For me, I just want to know everyone’s life updates, cool facts, recipes and car-washing videos. Yes, I said car washing. But It is all out of pure curiosity. 

And while I can say that social media is terrible and that it can be a scary place, I’m not sure I entirely believe all of it. 

It can be a scary and dark place, sure. But I have learned more about life skills than I ever have in school. For example, I just learned from a dad on TikTok about how to change the tires and oil in my car. I sure didn’t learn that in home economics class in high school. 

Now, I’m not saying to go and spend hours on your phone a day and scroll through these platforms, because at the end of the day, it is still pretty detrimental.

Social media can kill our minds. It has absolutely destroyed our patience and perception of time. We can’t wait for anything anywhere without reaching for our phones to scroll through social media. At the doctor’s office, drive-thrus, restaurants, the hair salon, in class, and if you are really bad about it, even at a red light while you are driving. 

But maybe, if we put down our phones while we are waiting for our food or getting our hair done, we would meet someone new or find something beautiful. Go take a walk in the park, go find a new hobby like drawing or painting, go to the coffee shop and talk to someone or go walk around town. 

It sounds boring to us now because we have become so accustomed to reverting to our phones. But, if you lift your head up, look and listen, there are beautiful things that surround us every day.