There is one thing we are all guilty of – procrastination. We put projects, assignments and meetings off because we just have so many other things to do like watch television, read the newspaper, see friends, listen to music, etc.

Prior to writing this column, I found myself looking at Twitter, scrolling through the endless Dashboard on Tumblr, checking Facebook, looking at e-mails – all in the matter of five minutes. I don’t know about you, but I’m so distracted and it’s not in a good way.

As a society, we have all these things surrounding us ALL the time and we perpetuate it. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve heard people talk about what someone posted on Facebook or Twitter. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been guilty of said action.

While these things have become an “important” part of advancing in the 21st century, I think that we are losing sight more and more of what should be important to us. We spend so much time worrying about setting up our blog or posting something unique so we get followers that we stop remembering that all the time wasted on the Internet could be spent doing more productive things.

Even if you know you aren’t going to do anything productive, that time can be spent nurturing relationships with family and friends – the very relationships we often let falter when we are too busy with life and school (but clearly, never too busy to stay off Facebook and Twitter).

Technology and instantaneous access to the Internet and social media is supposed to be a good thing – we can use it to learn, keep abreast of current issues and maintain connections with people that we may not be able to maintain otherwise.

However, more and more I think they’re used for frivolous pursuits. Facebook isn’t used to keep in touch with people you haven’t seen in a while, but rather it’s used to show the world that you got too drunk to function on the weekends and took pictures that should never be put on the Internet. Twitter isn’t used to keep informed about current news, but rather it’s used to post.

Listen, I’m guilty of overusing the Internet so I’m not going to stand on a podium and profess that we should give it up.  Rather, maybe we should temper our use of it when there are more important things to do that don’t require sitting behind a computer screen.

It’s easy to mindlessly distract yourself by watching a movie or browsing through blogs with hundreds of flashy .gifs and witty saying – but in the end, what are you really getting out of that?

In other words, try to do something more constructive and enriching with your free time. Maybe take it as the opportunity to exercise or as the opportunity to make lasting connections with people.  Either way, stop living on social media and start living in the real world.

To contact The Ionian’s Heather Nannery, e-mail her at [email protected].