This article was published on November 9th, 2017

Social media is seemingly the evil gift that keeps giving. Sure, a lot of amazing things are happening as a result of being connected to everyone on a worldwide scale. The amount of science and research that people are now effortlessly able to share should be reason enough to celebrate the social digital age.

But social media also helped elect the 45th president of the United States…so how great can it really be? The real question is: how does social media effect you? Social media could be making or breaking your relationships. Being a social media whore could also be a deal breaker for some people you want to have in your life. Here are 10 signs you need to walk away from social media before your friends and family walk away from you:

1. You’re addicted. You don’t need to check your social media every day, let along every five seconds.
2. You’re letting social media dictate your moods. If getting some likes will bring you to a happier place while seeing your ex having fun can bring you to the pit of depression, you’ve had enough.
3. You’re too worried about how you’ll be perceived by the public.
4. You absolutely must be Facebook friends with someone before you can date them, just so you can stalk them and learn as much as you can about them.
5. You cannot deal with people who don’t have a social media presence. You wonder how they are even alive?!
6. You’re getting all of your news and information about the world in under 140 characters.
7. Your partner, boyfriend, lover, friends, or family member tells you that you spend too much time looking at your phone or a computer screen.
8. Your body is telling you enough is enough. You can’t sleep at night. You have a sore neck from screen-staring for hours on end. Sore wrist and thumbs from commenting and emoji-ing.
9. You can’t remember the last time you weren’t on social media.
10. You feel the need to take a break from it all. If you’ve reached the stage where you can finally admit that you might have a social media addiction problem, then it might be the perfect time to escape while you can.

Believe it or not, there was a time before there it was possible to be labeled as a social media whore. Perhaps it’s time for a reality check, that being social means not being on social media. That real interactions happen in real day-to-day life, with real people. Loose the impersonal communication and give interpersonal communication a try again.

Put the social media down for a few hours, an afternoon, an entire day, or even a month to see just how much you really didn’t need it or miss it in the first place. Oh, but continue to keep logging into HomoCulture each day, or subscribe now, so you can keep up with all the fun things happening in gay culture.