One of the most prominent things my parents and I fight about is how much time my sister, Biff and I are spending on our phones and computers. The obsession with social media is affecting children, teens and even adults all over the world.

While the majority of my high school went to the tropics for Spring Break vacation, my family and I visited the Adirondack Mountains in New York.

It is a peaceful escape. For our entire lives, our parents have taken my sister, Biff and I, to the Lake Placid / Whiteface Mtn. KOA campground every summer to visit, where it is lively with other families and events. Over the years, we made lasting friendships and memories.

Visiting for spring break was different because it was much quieter than usual. However, despite the deserted campground, the place was solemn, as always, and free of light pollution, for when it got dark, hundreds of stars accompanied the night. The weather was not relaxingly warm like the southern states and tropical islands, but refreshing and crisp, the smell of campfire and fresh pine carelessly entering my nostrils.

When we arrived at our assigned cabin, we unpacked our things and helped our dad unload the truck. However, as soon as we got inside the cabin, we resorted to opening our laptops instead of exploring the outdoors we had come to love. We did venture out to the river, to town, and to different restaurants with our parents, but it seemed that every free moment we had was spent scrambling to see the latest updates on Instagram or to catch up on our Netflix binges; anxious to view the next Vampire Diaries episode..

The results of our phone and computer usage was the usual social controversy discussed between my parents and I. The question lingered: How much time were we actually wasting on technology on our Spring Break Vacation?

As the trip pressed on, I decided to try and eliminate my social media use entirely. I left my phone off during certain hours as a self experiment. Biff was also encouraged to do this and she asked nearly every hour when she was allowed to turn it back on. The absence of our phones immediately seemed to affect us. The tapping of our feet and our bitten nails simply stood as signs of apparent separation anxiety. What were we missing out on right at that very moment? How much more could we stay apart from our beloved phones?

After we spent several days spent without them, I began to realize the severity of phone separation and how my parents had always told us we were wasting our lives engulfed in our cellulars. It seemed true; we were missing out on so much of life, just like everyone else unknowingly has been. Though I still felt the urge to pull Instagram out of my pocket and check it, I found I could enjoy the Adirondack nature much more than I would if my eyes were lost in the light of my phone screen.