For modern teens, social media is treated like just another part of everyday life. The average 15-19 year old spends 3 hours a day on social media.

Sophomore Michael Fuhrman, junior Phillip Isom-Green and senior Sam Clark took a break and silenced all social media for a day, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and Snapchat.

For teens used to being on social media for three or more hours a day, this seems like an impossible task. Many students are so attached to social media that they feel a sense of separation anxiety just by being without it.

“There were [times when I faced temptation],” Fuhrman said. “At one point I had to move [social media apps] into a separate folder on my phone so I wouldn’t see them.”

For both Isom-Green and Fuhrman, the worst part about not being on social media was feeling left out.

“I would probably say seeing all your friends around you being on it, and you not being able to, made it kinda stressful,” Fuhrman said.

Like Furhman, Clark also felt a pull towards her apps.

“[The hardest part] for me was not being able to watch the band competition videos on Facebook,” Clark said.

Even though it had a mostly positive affect on Isom-Green, he still said that he felt out of the loop with other teens. Once he was able to push past the impulse to check Twitter, he could get more tasks accomplished than usual.

“I was more productive. I actually got all of my homework done after school because I wasn’t looking down at my phone every 5 minutes to check my Twitter feed,” Isom-Green said.

Much like Isom-Green, Fuhrman said that he was more attentive in class. Social media acts as a wall, keeping students from meeting their goals. Fuhrman and Isom-Green proved this by going social media-free for a day.

“I had no reason to be on my phone [because I couldn’t use social media],” Fuhrman said. “I was more focused.”

Unlike Isom-Green and Fuhrman, Clark chose a weekend instead of a week day to go without social media, leading her to be more lazy than profitable.

“I was super bored, mostly,” Clark said. “So I slept a lot.”

Although going a day without social media seems terrifying to most students, according to Isom-Green, it is not all that bad.

“I didn’t have any [temptations] because once I stopped thinking about it, I kept myself busy enough to not need it,” Isom-Green said. “It’s almost like I forgot what social media was.”