To the Editor:

How much time did you spend today on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest?

All across America, people of all ages are engaging in the biggest time waster: social networking.

All you have to do is sit down at the computer and you are instantly hooked, even though you told yourself that you would only be on Facebook for five minutes, it soon turns into hours.

Nowadays, it is even easier to waste time on social networking sites because of new technology such as smartphones and iPads. Due to the ease of contacting others electronically, teenagers lack skills such as answering a home phone, something always done a decade ago.

Social networking takes the place of time studying, participating in a hobby, or just hanging out with friends.

According to the Business Finance Magazine, people in the U.S. alone spend 12,207,423,487 hours a day on social media sites. In July, 2012, CNBC found that 230,060 years by Americans were spent on social media sites in one month. A quarter of the hours spent on social media sites are over 3 billion hours. Think of all of the great things people could do with that time such as volunteering, spending time with family and learning a new hobby.

Social networking can be lots of fun, but too often countless teens are victims of cyber bullying and sexting. It is not that social networking should be cut out completely, just self-regulated so people have less time to carry out negative activities. Once this happens, young people can use their time to better the community and their lives.

I encourage everyone to use this time more productively. In using this found time to take action rather than looking at someone's Facebook pictures from last year, our generation can make productive contributions.

Casey Young

Emmaus High School