The last ten days, I have quite literally been unplugged.  It all started with a text message. My friend Emma challenged me to a ten-day vacation from ALL social media.  Not one to back down from a challenge, I accepted in a heartbeat. I knew from the start it wouldn't be easy, but I also knew it would be good for me. That's not to say I wasn't ever tempted to cheat, because I was.  I received several emails from Facebook, the last one alerting me of 17 new notifications that I had missed, practically begging me to log back in.  Surprisingly, the days ticked by a lot faster than I had expected, and I successfully completed the challenge. I learned a few very important life lessons, which I will list and explain below.

1. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible for a teenage girl (or any person for that matter) to survive without Facebook and Pinterest.
2. Life goes on. If I miss a few cute pictures, it won't kill me.
3. Your friends will not hate you for not liking, commenting, and sharing every picture and post of theirs. This goes along with the last point. They may have to find coping strategies to fill the void left by your temporary absence, but let's be real. They probably have three hundred other FB friends to worry about, and unless you post every waking moment of your life, most people probably won't notice your vacancy.
4. You will save data. This is especially true if, like me, you have a limited amount of data each month (gasp-I only have one gigabyte per month!).
5. You will have more time on your hands. We're all guilty of spending hours on Pinterest, gazing at wonderful crafts and hairstyles we could never recreate. I actually found I had more time to read, and actually finished a book during the ten days. You'd be amazed the things you can accomplish when you take a break from social media!
6. In the end, you will be a better, more social, human being. Face it, there's nothing "social" about staring at a screen for several hours a day. You may even find that you get to spend more quality time and have real conversations with the people in your life. I can guarantee your parents will love it!

To conclude, I don't regret doing this challenge. In fact, I would do it again. The benefits definitely outweigh the negatives. You know the old saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." Now excuse me while I go find my Pinterest password…