How much time do you spend each day ‘online’ ? Reading emails, tweets, instagram etc ? Are you online obsessed ?

I’m guessing that most of us would probably say no, who would admit to being enslaved to the internet to such an extent, that it is titled an ‘obsession’! Well, apparently we are. I recently read an article about an app that monitors how often people use their phones, and for how long each day. It stated that the average person checks their phone 9 times per hour and over 100 times per day. We are obsessed!

Personally, I know I am guilty of scrolling through instagram at all hours of the day. In the car, in the bath and even though I know it’s terrible, in bed! I read blogs, I create Pinterest boards and I scroll idly through tweets.

Why are we so addicted to being online? Are we using social media for work, for self promotion or just to validate ourselves with a number of likes or retweets? Maybe we’re a bit nosey and just like to see what other people are getting up to. Of course, we often have to question how many peoples online accounts we follow are completely honest and accurately portraying their lives? I’m guessing not that many. Most of the images that we see are deliberately cropped and filtered, as a result, the final edit is completely contrived. It’s quite scary and sometimes amusing, to see what you can do to a photograph with a few iPhone apps. Let’ be honest, its pretty obvious too! Essentially, it’s just about trying to make everything look a little bit better than it really is. Come on guys, let’s keep it real!

Many of us follow celebrities online for a glimps of their ‘real’ lives. The internet has normalised our idols and now we can see their #nomakeup selfies and read their opinions on Twitter. Some people are willing to share everything with us online! What the wear, what they eat, who they’re with, what, why, when, how !! Information overload! How are we supposed to lecture the kids about the importance of online safety, when women like Kim Kardashian can dismantle our efforts with a single snapchat?

I’m not suggesting that I will ever forgo using social media, let’s face it I’m a blogger & I’m not ashamed to say that I love a good Instagram snap. Since starting this blog 10 months ago, I have had some amazing work opportunities and met so many inspiring people too. However, I do think it is important to find a balance between the online & the real world. Perhaps I’ll just unplug from the internet for a few days and test out this theory of ‘online addiction’. Maybe, in a few years time, we’ll all get bored of social media and look back at our Facebook pages nostalgically, hmmm I doubt it!